%0 Journal Article
%T Therapeutic potential of selected micronutrients in malaria: an in vivo study in Plasmodium berghei infected mice
%A OI Iribhogbe
%J Biology and Medicine
%D 2012
%I 
%X 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 107million P. berghei infected erythrocyte and were administered with 0.2ml of distilled water, 0.2ml of vehicle, Tween 80 (control and vehicle group), chloroquine 25mg/kg (standard drug group), vitamin A 60mg/kg, vitamin E 100mg/kg, selenium 1mg/kg, zinc 100mg/kg, and vitamin C 200mg/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 ªÄ 0.05). Conclusively, antioxidant micronutrients have potential antimalarial activity and may be of benefit in malaria therapeutics.
%K Antioxidant micronutrients
%K antimalarial activity
%K therapeutic potential
%U http://www.biolmedonline.com/Articles/Vol4_4_2012/Vol4_4_193-201_BM-6.pdf