Since the approval of artemisinin-based therapies for the treatment of uncomplicated and severe malaria in Africa by World Health organization in 20041, millions of people in Africa and elsewhere in the world especially in Asia use artemisinin based antimalarial drugs to treat malaria2, 4. The Canadian recommendations for the prevention and treatment of malaria among international travelers noted that by the year 2000 there have been two human cases of complete heart block associated with the use of artemisinin but most volunteer and clinical studies have found no evidence of cardiac or other toxicity1. The present study evaluated the effect of orally administered dihydroartemisinin (DHA) on the activities of serum alanine amino transferase, serum aspartate amino transferase and alkaline phosphatase.The effect of Dihydroartemisinin administration on the activities of these three serum enzymes were investigated with 5 oral dosage regiments of DHA which were 1mg/kg, 2mg/kg, 60mg/kg, 80mg/kg and a dosage of 1mg/kg which was given twice to a group of rat with a one week resting interval.. The results obtained from the assay of the three enzymes with the whole blood collected from the DHA-treated and control rats showed that the activities of these three enzymes were neither elevated nor depressed by DHA treatment. Histopathological examination of the liver and heart of these DHA treated rats confirmed that DHA treatment did not adversely affect the liver and heart of the rats5. The study concludes that dihydroartemisinin does not interfere with the activities of serum enzymes and this is one of the attributes that contribute to the safety of oral dihydroartemisinin.
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