Malaria is a disease caused by the protozoan genus Plasmodium and presents itself as a
grave public health issue in underdeveloped countries. Cerebral Malaria (CM) is the most
serve pathology that can result from infection by P. falciparum in humans and is
characterized by a variety of clinical manifestations, that include alterations in the level
of consciousness, different neurological focal signals, and other cognitive and behavioral
alterations. In the municipal of Oriximiná it is common to use medicinal plants for the
purpose of various diseases, including malaria. A previous study in two quilombola
communities from the Municipal of Oriximiná/PA: Araçá de Fora (Erepecurú River) and
Tapagem (Trombetas River), was used in order to identify the utilized vegetation, the
indication for treatment, and the forms of prepatation, through visits to the communities.
From this study, we observed that the indication for treatment with Ampelozizyphus
amazonics Ducke – Saracuramirá- (A.a), was cited as the medicinal plant utilized for the
use of malaria treatment in both of the communities. From there we decided to do an
experimental study on the plant. The objective of this work is to evaluate the effects of
A.a in the evolutionary frame of murine cerebral malaria and the effects of the damage
caused by the infection with the strain ANKA from Plasmodium berghei (PbA). The
mouse line C57BL/6 were utilized and were inoculated intraperitoneally (~106
of
parasitized erythrocytes). The groups were divided in the following manner: malaria
(PbA) group (n=14), PbA group + A.a 10mg (n=14), PbA group + A.a 20mg (n=14),
treated for 8 consecutive days. The development of the disease was monitored daily for
the survival rate, corporeal mass, the parasites were monitored every three days by blood
staining, and the weight of the mouse C57BL/6 liver was evaluated on the 10th day post
infection. Our data demonstrated that the A.a treatment in the 10mg/Kg and 20mg/Kg
doseage decreased the mortality of the infected animals on the 13th day post infection.
21.42% and 53.88% of the animal groups A.a in the doseage of 10mg/Kg and 20mg/Kg
respectively, were alive, while in the infected group with PbA, on the 11th day, only
7.42% of the animals were alive. In relation to the corporeal mass, we did not observe
significant loss between the groups, all of the infected groups lost corporeal mass between
the third and 13th day according to the progress of the infection. The infected and treated
animals with A.a with the doseages of 10mg/Kg and 20mg/Kg presented a parasited percentage (32.12% and 27.70% respectively) less than the PbA group with 57.96%
parasited. The hepatectomy of the liver, made evident the hepatomegaly in the infected
groups and confirmed that the encountered alterations were most expressed in the PbA
group, concluding that Saracuramirá, when administered intraperitoneally of 10mg/Kg
and 20mg/Kg, can have protecting effects on the survival rate and parasitemia of infected
mice with the ANKA strain in the CM model.
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