Therapeutic potential of selected micronutrients in malaria: an in vivo study in Plasmodium berghei infected mice

Abstract

The study involves an in vivo evaluation of the role of some antioxidant micronutrients in the therapeutics of malaria. Rodent malaria model using Plasmodium berghei NK-65 strain (chloroquine sensitive) was used. In the first stage of the experiment, a 4 day suppressive test was conducted using 40 mice of either sex weighing 20.05 6 0.02 g which were inoculated intraperitoneally with 1 3 107 million P. berghei infected erythrocyte and were administered with 0.2 ml of distilled water, 0.2 ml of vehicle, Tween 80 (control and vehicle group), chloroquine 25 mg/kg (standard drug group), vitamin A 60 mg/kg, vitamin E 100 mg/kg, selenium 1 mg/kg, zinc 100 mg/kg, and vitamin C 200 mg/kg (test groups D, E, F, G, and H respectively) 3 hours post-inoculation. Similarly, 35 mice of either sex were used to conduct a 4 day curative test after the initial screening test. Selenium demonstrated significant ( p , 0.05) chemosuppressive (82.01%) and schizonticidal activity (76.16%) when compared with negative control during the 4 day suppressive and 4 day curative test respectively. Mean parasitemia was significantly reduced ( p , 0.05) in the micronutrient treated groups after the 4 day curative test when compared with negative control. This was also significant between groups (F 5 7.04; p  0.05). Conclusively, antioxidant micronutrients have potential antimalarial activity and may be of benefit in malaria therapeutics.