Oral administered ascorbic acid attenuated dihydroartemisinin anti-plasmodial activity and elicited hepatic injury in Plasmodium berghei strain Anka infected mice -

Abstract

Objective: This study investigated the effects of oral co-administered ascorbic acid (AA) and dihydroartemisinin (DHA) on some hepatotoxic biomarkers and parasitaemia counts in Plasmodium berghei Anka strain infected mice for 7 d. Methods: Twenty four male Swiss albino mice were randomly distributed into six groups; group I: “non-parasitized and non-treated”(nPnT), group II: “parasitized and non-treated”(PnT), group III: parasitized mice administered 5 mg/kg b.w. DHA, group IV: parasitized mice administered 5 mg/kg b.w. AA, group V: parasitized mice co-administered 5 mg/kg b.w. DHA+ 5 mg/kg b.w. AA and group VI: parasitized mice administered 25 mg/kg b.w. chloroquine (CQ) as standard. Results: Plasma alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) activities were significantly (P0.05) different. However, DHA and CQ treated mice had significantly reduced parasite count/μl blood at P