GENOTOXIC POTENTIAL OF SOME COMMONLY USED ANTIMALARIALS: A REVIEW

Malaria caused mostly by P. falciparum and P. vivax, remains one of the most important infectious diseases in the world. The numbers of antimalarial drugs in use are very small. Drug toxicity must be acceptable to patients and should cause less harm than the disease itself. Assessment of hazard and risk varies throughout drug development as more persons are exposed for longer periods of time and more nonclinical information on the hazard is collected and evaluated. Cancer risk for human pharmaceuticals is important because drugs are taken at pharmacologically active doses and often on a chronic basis. Epidemiologic studies on patient populations have limited value because of the long latency period for most cancers and because these studies lack sensitivity. Besides the mutagenicity and genotoxicity testing of antimalarial drugs as a part of pre-clinical trials, there are several literatures confirming the mutagenicity and genotoxicity of marketed antimalarial drugs. Genetic abnormalities may also play a part in the incidence and severity of adverse reactions to drugs. In this paper, a comprehensive review of literature pertaining to the mutagenic and genotoxic properties of some commonly used antimalarial drugs is presented.