Effect of Allicin and Artesunate Combination Treatment on Experimental Mice Infected with Plasmodium berghei

Sakaewan Ounjaijean; Voravuth Somsak

doi:10.1155/2022/7626618

Effect of Allicin and Artesunate Combination Treatment on Experimental Mice Infected with Plasmodium berghei

Vet Med Int. 2022 Apr 18:2022:7626618. doi: 10.1155/2022/7626618. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Sakaewan Ounjaijean¹, Voravuth Somsak^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Research Institute for Health Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand.
² School of Allied Health Sciences, Walailak University, Nakhon Si Thammarat 80160, Thailand.
³ Research Excellence Center for Innovation and Health Products, Walailak University, Nakhon Si Thammarat 80160, Thailand.

Abstract

Malaria is still a significant health problem in endemic countries and increases Plasmodium resistance to the available antimalarial drugs. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the antimalarial activity of allicin and its combination with artesunate (ART) against rodent malaria Plasmodium berghei ANKA (PbANKA) infected mice. Allicin was prepared in 20% Tween-80. Balb/c mice were inoculated intraperitoneally with 1×10⁷ PbANKA-infected erythrocytes and orally given by gavage with the chosen doses of 1, 10, 50, and 100 mg/kg of allicin and 1, 5, 10, and 20 mg/kg of ART once a day for 4 consecutive days. Effective dose 50 (ED₅₀) of allicin and ART was subsequently investigated. Moreover, the combination (1 : 1) of allicin and ART at the doses of their respective ED₅₀, ED₅₀ 1/2, ED₅₀ 1/4, and ED₅₀ 1/8 was also carried out. The untreated control was given 20% Tween-80. The results showed that allicin presented a dose-dependent antimalarial activity with significance (p < 0.05). The ED₅₀ values of allicin and ART were about 14 and 5 mg/kg, respectively. For combination, allicin and ART showed a synergistic effect at the combination doses of ED₅₀, ED₅₀ 1/2, and ED₅₀ 1/4 with significantly (p < 0.01) prevented reduction of packed cell volume, bodyweight loss, rapid dropping of rectal temperature, and markedly prolonged mean survival time, compared with the untreated control and single treatment. It can be concluded that allicin exerted potential antimalarial activity in single and its combination with ART.