Therapeutic effect of mefloquine on murine schistosomiasis : Molecular and physiological studies / Eman Mamdouh Mansour ; Supervised Sohair Ramadan Fahmy , Jehane Ibrahim Eid , Ibrahim Rabia

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Science - Department of Zoology

The present study was design to assess the antioxidant, antigenotoxic and anti-schistosomal activities of the antimalarial drug mefloquine (Mef) on normal and Schistosoma mansoni-infected mice. Oral administration of Mef (200 or 400 mg/kg) at day 14 or 35 PI reduced the total worm burden. Meanwhile, Mef treatment reduced egg load in the intestine and the liver. Following Mef (200 and 400 mg/kg) treatment to mice at day 14 or 35 PI, the oogram pattern showed complete disappearance of all immature and mature ova. Treatment of mice with Mef at the two tested doses significantly decreased the activities of ALT, AST, ALP and GGT enzymes as compared to infected untreated group. However, administration of Mef (200 and 400 mg/kg) at day 14 or 35 PI significantly decreased MDA level and increased the levels of GSH and CAT as compared to infected untreated group. In addition, Infection by schistomiasis cause high degree of apoptosis as indicating by internucleosomal DNA fragment which assayed by agarose gel electrophoresis while administration of Mef (200 or 400 mg/Kg body weight orally) at day 14 or 35 PI showed anti-apoptotic properties as seen as less DNA fragmentation. Moreover, administration of Mef (200 or 400 mg/Kg body weight orally) at 14 or 35 day PI has anti-genotoxic effect indicating by comet assay parameters (Tail length, percentage of tail DNA, tail moment and olive tail moment) as compared to infected untreated group. In addition, there is a significant reduction in hepatic granuloma size and number after administration of Mef.

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