ANDY-OMEZI, JESSICA

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has presented a major threat to public health worldwide. COVID-19 is the result of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that was first identified in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China on December 2019. It is highly contagious and transmission is via respiratory droplets and direct contact. There are no specific antiviral measures available to treat COVID-19 but there are several treatment options that could be pursued as first-line therapy for COVID-19 which is the repurposing of drugs like Chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, zinc, selenium, lopinavir/ritonavir and ivermectin. The aim of this project was to evaluate and monitor the adverse effects of the recommended drugs for the treatment of COVID 19 in the liver Proteins of Wistar rats. 60 rats were used for this study and the parameters that was assayed for was albumin, total protein, direct bilirubin and total bilirubin. Albumin was analysed using bromocresol green reagent, total protein was analysed using biuret reagent, and bilirubin by Evelyn and Malloy's method. The data generated were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0 (IBM Inc. USA). The results showed that the Albumin of animals treated with Combination 7(2.93±0.14), Combination 8 (3.10±0.15) and combination 9 (3.08±0.15) were significantly lower than that of the control (4.17±0.18) (p<0.05). There was significant difference in direct bilirubin of experimental animals across most treated groups (p<0.05). It also showed that total bilirubin was significantly higher (p<0.05) in animals treated with ivermectin (0.93±0.10) and Lopinavir-ritonavir (0.92±0.06) when compared to control (0.47±0.07), and Total protein was significantly higher (p<0.05) in animals treated with ivermectin (8.62±0.45) when compared to control (7.02±0.22). In conclusion, the administration of these drugs adversely affected the synthetic and excretory functions of the liver. Regular assessment of liver function parameters, including albumin, total bilirubin, and total protein levels should be made compulsory in patients receiving COVID-19 drugs.