DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2015.v03i02.069

Pages: 884-887

The relative stability of human erythrocyte membrane in the presence of four oral antiretroviral drugs was investigated in vitro. Blood collected by venipuncture from 60 confirmed healthy humans were used for the study. The osmotic fragility of the erythrocytes was determined by measuring the release of haemoglobin from blood added to tubes containing serially diluted phosphate buffered saline (PBS, pH 7.4). Results revealed that increase of mean corpuscular fragility was not significant (p>0.05) in the presence of nevirapine, lamivudine and abacavir sulfate, while, efavirenz cause a significant (p<0.05) increase from 0.49±0.01 to 0.53±0.04mg/100ml. The erythrocytes were stable at 0.2mg/ml of nevirapine; 0.6mg/ml efavirenz; and 0.2 and 0.4mg/ml lamivudine. Results show that all drugs have the capacity to increase the permeability of the erythrocyte membrane and can compromise the integrity of the erythrocyte.