Voluntary ingestion of antiparasitic drugs emulsified in honey represents an alternative to gavage in mice

Küster, Tatiana; Zumkehr, Beatrice; Hermann, Corina; Theurillat, Regula; Thormann, Wolfgang; Gottstein, Bruno; Hemphill, Andrew (2012). Voluntary ingestion of antiparasitic drugs emulsified in honey represents an alternative to gavage in mice. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science Journal, 51(2), pp. 219-223. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science

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The oral route is the most frequently used method of drug intake in humans. Oral administration of drugs to laboratory animals such as mice typically is achieved through gavage, in which a feeding needle is introduced into the esophagus and the drug is delivered directly into the stomach. This method requires technical skill, is stressful for animals, and introduces risk of injury, pain and morbidity. Here we investigated another method of drug administration. The benzimidazole derivative albendazole was emulsified in commercially available honey and administered to mice by voluntary feeding or gavage. Mice that received albendazole by either gavage or honey ingestion had virtually identical levels of serum albendazole sulfoxide, indicating that uptake and metabolism of albendazole was similar for both administration techniques. In addition, dosing mice with the albendazole-honey mixture for 8 wk had antiparasitic activity comparable to earlier studies using gavage for drug administration. Compared with gavage, voluntary ingestion of a drug in honey is more rapid, less stressful to the animal, and less technically demanding for the administrator. Because of its low cost and ready availability, honey presents a viable vehicle for drug delivery.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology (DIP) > Institute of Parasitology
05 Veterinary Medicine > Research Foci > Host-Pathogen Interaction
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology (DIP)
04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute for Infectious Diseases > Laboratory for Clinical Pharmacology

UniBE Contributor:

Küster, Tatiana, Hermann, Corina, Theurillat, Regula, Thormann, Wolfgang, Gottstein, Bruno, Hemphill, Andrew

Subjects:

600 Technology > 630 Agriculture
600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

1559-6109

Publisher:

American Association for Laboratory Animal Science

Language:

English

Submitter:

Wolfgang Thormann

Date Deposited:

04 Jul 2014 09:31

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:35

PubMed ID:

22776122

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.54330

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/54330

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