IN-VITRO ANTI-TRICHOMONAD EFFECTIVENESS OF A GOSSYPOL-METRONIDAZOL BLEND

With the aid of the Basic Sequential Analytical Simplex Method the in vitro anti-trichomonad effectiveness of several metronidazole/gossypol blends was determined. While the combination that produced 50% of gro wth inhibition on trichomonad cultures (IC50) contained 15.1 mu M goss ypol and 0.087 mu M metronidazole, the IC50 of metronidazole and gossy pol tested separately was 38.08 mu M and 0.195 mu M, respectively. Thu s, the IC50 of mixed gossypol and metronidazole was, respectively 60.3 4 and 55.4% lower than that of each separated drug. Whereas metronidaz ole is usually administered orally, gossypol, used as spermicide, is f ormulated as pessary. In such conditions the absorption of metronidazo le is very efficient while that of gossypol is strikingly poor. The ab ove suggest that a gossypol-metronidazole anti-trichomoniasis therapeu tic scheme could be as effective as metronidazole alone, but less toxi c. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.