Full Length Research Paper

Toxicological assessment of oral administration of some antisickling agents in rats

Oyewole, O. I.¹* and Malomo, S. O.²

¹Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences,  University of Sierra Leone, Freetown.

²Department of Biochemistry, University, Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: ioluoye@yahoo.com. Tel.: +23233757782.

Accepted 29 December, 2008

   Abstract

This study investigated the toxicological effects of oral administration of hydroxyurea, tellurite and thiocyanate on some biochemical parameters in rats. The drugs were administered orally to rats daily at their therapeutic dose for 28 days after which some biochemical parameters were measured. All the drugs caused growth depression and significant elevation (P < 0.05) of serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate amino transferase (AST) while they also lowered serum albumin and total protein. Thiocyanate and tellurite significantly decreased activities of the three enzymes in the liver and kidney while hydroxyurea resulted in significant elevated activities. Tellurite significantly reduced serum concentrations of sodium ion and urea while it elevated serum potassium, creatinine and bilirubin. Hydroxyurea elevated serum urea and creatinine while it reduced bilirubin concentration. Thiocyanate significantly reduced (P < 0.05) serum bicarbonate and bilirubin. These results suggest that the drugs might be toxic at their therapeutic dose with thiocyanate exhibiting mildest toxicity followed by hydroxyurea.

Key words: Sickle cell disease, hydroxyurea, sodium thiocyanate, potassium tellurite