Cerebral malaria (CM) is one of the most severe complications attributed to protozoal infection by Plasmodium falciparum, gaining prominence in infant mortality rates in endemic areas. It´s a complex pathogenesis and still little elucidated, being associated with cognitive, behavioral and motor changes. Aiming to broaden the knowledge about this pathology and looking for the benefits attributed to the daily consumption of antioxidants, the objective of this work is to evaluate the possible protective effect of Euterpe oleracea fruit (açaí) during evolution of experimental cerebral malaria (ECM) induced in murine model by means of inoculation of Plasmodium berghei (PbA), ANKA stain. For this, we used the Swiss line, which were inoculated intraperitoneally (i.p.) with 10⁶ of parasited erythrocytes. The animals (females and males between 4 and 6 weeks) were divided into four groups, among which Açaí and PbA+Açaí groups were maintained on a ration-exclusive diet enriched with açaí and the Control and PbA groups were given only standard ration during 22 days of experiment. To characterize the ECM framework, several parameters were evaluated such as the appearence of clinical signs, survival curve, parasitemia, body mass gain and vascular permeability. The SHIRPA protocol was used to evaluate the behavioral and locomotor changes in animals. We observed an extension of survival of the infected animals and treated with a diet enriched with acai berry, and decreased the neurological changes arising from the exposure of the cerebral parenchyma. This work allowed us to validate the development of the experimental brain malaria framework in murine model and evaluate the neuroprotective effect of Acai (Euterpe oleracea) in the course of the disease.
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