Author(s)

Maduike Ezeibe^1*, Favour Onyeachonam¹, Ijeoma Ogbonna¹, Clara Akpan¹, Mary Sanda¹, Ekenma Kalu¹, Njoku Njoku¹, Munachi Udobi¹, Ugochukwu Agu²

¹College of Veterinary Medicine, M’ichael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria.
²Directorate of Information Computer Technology, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria.

To reduce Chloroquine’s (CQ) side effects, so that increasing its duration for anti-Covid-19 trials could be safe, the drug was potentiated by stabilizing it with Medicinal synthetic Aluminum-magnesium silicate (MSAMS). CQ-treatment for five Plasmodium berghie-infected mice-groups were: 7 mg/kg (normal dose); 7 mg/kg (CQ-MSAMS); 7 mg/kg (CQ-MSAMS + B-vitamins), 5.25 mg/kg (CQ-MSAMS + B-vitamins) and the control. Means of parasitaemia, 42.00 ± 15.74 of the normal-dose group, 37.22 ± 11.88 of the 7 mg/kg (CQ-MSAMS) group and 33.57 ± 12.62 of the 7 mg/kg (CQ-MSAMS + B-vitamins) group showed no significant (P ≥ 0.05) reduction from 52.50 ± 11.99 of the control, but the 5.25 mg/kg (CQ-MSAMS + B-vitamins) dose, cleared (P ≤ 0.01) the parasiteamia (00.00 ± 00.00), showing that MSAMS-potentiated Chloroquine, has best efficacy at 75% of the recommended dose. Fever and anemia were absent at that 5.25 mg/kg, suggesting that lower doses of CQ have reduced side effects.

Antiviral Treatment with Chloroquine, Lower Doses, Reduction of Side Effects, MSAMS

Ezeibe, M. , Onyeachonam, F. , Ogbonna, I. , Akpan, C. , Sanda, M. , Kalu, E. , Njoku, N. , Udobi, M. and Agu, U. (2020) Reducing Side Effects of Chloroquine with Medicinal Synthetic Aluminum-Magnesium Silicate® [Msams: Al₄(SiO₄)₃ + 3Mg₂SiO₄ →2Al₂Mg₃(SiO₄)₃] before Assessing Its Anti-Covid-19 Efficacy. Health, 12, 368-377. doi: 10.4236/health.2020.124030.