The effects of high-dose ivermectin regimens on Onchocerca volvulus in onchocerciasis patients

• Published in: Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Vol. 93; no. 2; pp. 189 - 194
• Main Authors: Awadzi, Kwablah, Attah, Simon Kwaku, Addy, Ebenezer Thomas, Opoku, Nicholas Obuobisa, Quartey, Benjamin Theophilus
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.03.1999; Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene; Elsevier
• Subjects: adult worms; Animals; Antibiotics. Antiinfectious agents. Antiparasitic agents; Antiparasitic agents; Biological and medical sciences; chemotherapy; Diseases caused by nematodes; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Double-Blind Method; drug regimens; efficacy; Eye - parasitology; Female; Filariases; Filaricides - administration & dosage; Helminthic diseases; Humans; Infectious diseases; ivermectin; Ivermectin - administration & dosage; Male; Medical sciences; Onchocerca - drug effects; Onchocerca volvulus; onchocerciasis; Onchocerciasis - drug therapy; Onchocerciasis - parasitology; Onchocerciasis, Ocular - drug therapy; Onchocerciasis, Ocular - parasitology; Onchocercosis; Parasitic diseases; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Skin - parasitology; Treatment Outcome; Tropical medicine; Ghana; Africa; drug regimens; onchocerciasis; adult worms; Onchocerca volvulus; chemotherapy; ivermectin; efficacy; Skin disease; Anthelmintic; Treatment efficiency; Parasitosis; Helminthiasis; Onchocerciasis; Infection; Eye disease; Chemotherapy; Nematode disease; Filariosis; High dose; Ivermectin
• ISSN: 0035-9203; 1878-3503
• DOI: 10.1016/S0035-9203(99)90305-X

Ivermectin, at the standard dose of 150 μg/kg bodyweight, does not kill the adult worms of Onchocerca volvulus and does not disrupt embryogenesis or spermatogenesis. Repeated standard doses, if maintained, arrest microfilarial production but result in only a mild-to-modest macrofilaricidal effect. We investigated whether high doses would effectively kill the adult worms, and whether cessation of microfilarial production could be reproduced by an equivalent, single, high dose. One hundred men participated in a double-blind placebo-controlled trial and received increasing doses of ivermectin from 150 μg/kg to 1600 μg/kg bodyweight. Nodules were excised at day 180 and examined by histopathology. Total doses of ivermectin up to 1600 μg/kg were not significantly more effective than 150 μg/kg. Moreover, they did not reproduce the marked inhibitory effects of the repeat standard-dose regimens on embryogenesis, nor the modest effect on adult worm viability, at comparable total doses. These effects may be functions of multiplicities of dosages rather than of the total dose. Our findings also suggest that repeated high-dose regimens are unlikely to be more effective than a similar number of 150 μg/kg doses. This deficiency of ivermectin requires that the search for macrofilaricides remains a top priority.