International Journal of Pharmacology (IJP) is published by IMR Press from Volume 21 Issue 4 (2025). Previous articles were published by another publisher under the CC-BY licence, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement.
The Acute Hepatotoxic Effect of Halofantrine on Healthy and Uninfected Adult Wistar Rats
1 Department of Physiology, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Remo Campus, Ikenne Remo, Nigeria
2 Department of Pharmacology, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Remo Campus, Ikenne Remo, Nigeria
3 School of Medical Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Ghana
4 Department of Nursing, University of Cape Coast, Ghana
Abstract
The aim of the research was to evaluate the likely effects of Halofantrine on liver enzymes in healthy and uninfected Wistar rats of both sexes. Thirty albino rats (randomly assigned into 3 groups of 10 rats each) with body weight of 150 - 230 g were used for the 2-phase study. In phase 1, the drug was administered orally at Therapeutic (T) dose of 2.15 mg per 100 g body weight to 10 rats (5 males and 5 females) daily at 6 h interval for 18 h. Phase II was a recovery study involving 10 rats (5 males and 5 females) exposed to dose regimen as in phase 1 and sacrificed after 18 h withdrawal of treatment. The control-group made of 10 rats was given sterile water and rat feed ad-libitum. Halofantrine caused significant increase (p< 0.05) in the liver enzymes (ALK, ALT and AST) of the animals. Discontinuation of the drug use caused significant decrease in the liver enzymes values in the recovery group. The results suggested that halofantrine could induce hepatotoxicity in the treated animals.
Keywords
- Halofantrine
- liver enzymes
- Wistar rats
- antimalarial