Toxic effect of cocaine- levamisole in pharmacological models

We study the toxic effects of mixing cocaine with levamisole in 120 male NMRI mice, young adult stage, as pharmacological models with approximate conversion to 26 years in a human. Levamisole is a drug with immunomodulating activity and anthelmintic used in veterinary medicine and currently enrolled in a "cut" (adulterant) of cocaine in the U.S. and other countries. The study was conducted in six groups of 20 models each (cocaine alone, levamisole alone, three concentrations of the mixture and saline control) and included hematologic values, biochemical, clinical and behavioral before, during and after the experience, and pathological findings, with three concentrations of the mixture and controls. Through profiles of transaminases and creatinine are evident severe damage to the liver and kidneys. Changes in hematologic formula are indicative of damage to the immune system level, confirmed by the pathological finding of an enlarged spleen. Among the behavioral changes observed time-effect increased psychomotor activity, aggressive behavior, excessive water intake, low food intake and marked damage to skin level, leading to putrefaction of the same in Week 4 and 5 of the study. The study also allowed to observe that the mixture has a synergistic effect, enhancing the effects of cocaine on central nervous system. To confirm this assumption was sampled brain regions for further study inhibitory amino acid neurotransmitters, excitatory and dopaminergic receptors. Likewise are currently underway in our research unit Toxicogenetics studies. Further studies are needed to assert that this association extends the half-life of cocaine, as assumed by some rapid tests performed.These early results suggest that cutting cocaine with levamisole produces severe damage to the liver, renal, immune, the most relevant of the skin damage (necrosis). This serves to alert personnel of health, treatment centers, and security of this pathology should not be confused with vasculitis or skin infections and therefore, medications that may exacerbate the clinical or enhance the effect of the mixture.