Research notes from the Chemotherapy Research Onchocerciasis Centre, Ghana

Brief notes are given on drugs which have been tested at the Onchocerciasis Chemotherapy Research Centre at Tamale and Hohoe and found to have activity against Onchocerca volvulus. Ivermectin in single doses as high as 800 micrograms/kg was found to be no more effective than the standard dose of 150 micrograms/kg. The benzimidazole carbamates, mebendazole and albendazole, differ in their effects on O. volvulus. The former has microfilaricidal effects and is toxic to developing embryos surrounded by an egg shell but not the stretched microfilariae. Albendazole has no microfilaricidal activity but is toxic to all intra-uterine stages. The reasons for these differences are unclear. Early studies with amocarzine are described; the maximum tolerable dose is 20 mg/kg and the predominant activity, against the microfilariae, is marked only at doses greater than 12 mg/kg. None of the drugs tested has macrofilaricidal activity.