Effect of Combined Quinine and Ciprofloxacin Therapy in Experimental Murine Plasmodiasis

The increasing spread of drug-resistant malaria parasite has necessitated the continuous search for even more effective malaria treatment including the combination of drugs known to have significant anti malarial potentials. Effort in this study was therefore, devoted to evaluating in vivo, anti plasmodial activity of combination of varying doses (4.3, 8.6, 12.9 mg/kg body weight) of quinine (a known anti malarial gradually loosing relevance) with varying doses (5.0, 10.0, 15.0 mg/kg body weight) of ciprofloxacin (a fluoroquinolone commonly used to treat bacterial infections and has been shown to possess significant anti malarial activity both in vitro and in vivo) in Plasmodium berghei infected mice. Parasitological activity and survival of the animal were assessed over 21 days. Parasitemia in non-treated control mice peaked at 75% on day 9 and none survived by day 11. The lower dosages of quinine (4.3 and 8.6 mg/kg body weight) and ciprofloxacin (5.0 and 10.0 mg/kg body weight) were not efficient. However, the combination of 12.9 mg/kg body weight of quinine with 15 mg/kg body weight of ciprofloxacin achieved 87% reduction in parasitemia level and significantly reduced mortality in the infected animals compared with other treatment groups. The results from this study support the potential use of ciprofloxacin in combination with quinine for the treatment of resistant malaria.