Evaluation of potential anti-toxoplasmosis efficiency of combined traditional herbs in a mouse model
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Hai-Jie Yu; Bin Huang; Hongchao Sun; Xunhui Zhuo; Ying Shan; Aifang Du
- Source
- Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE B
- Subject
- 0301 basic medicine
Drug
Lymphocyte
media_common.quotation_subject
030231 tropical medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine
Pharmacology
Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
complex mixtures
Parasite load
Parasite Load
Article
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Mice
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Sulfadiazine
Parasitic Sensitivity Tests
parasitic diseases
Animals
Medicine
General Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics
media_common
Mice, Inbred ICR
General Veterinary
biology
Traditional medicine
business.industry
Monocyte
Toxoplasma gondii
General Medicine
DNA, Protozoan
biology.organism_classification
medicine.disease
Toxoplasmosis
3. Good health
Disease Models, Animal
Toxoplasmosis, Animal
030104 developmental biology
medicine.anatomical_structure
Coccidiostats
Female
business
Toxoplasma
Drugs, Chinese Herbal
Phytotherapy
medicine.drug
- Language
- ISSN
- 1862-1783
1673-1581
Toxoplasma gondii is a worldwide spread protozoan and is able to infect almost all warm-blood animals. No effective drugs are available clinically on toxoplasmosis. Chinese traditional herbal medicines have provided remedies for many health problems. There exists a possibility that Chinese herbs may provide protection against T. gondii. This work aims to assess the protective efficacy of combined Chinese herbs against T. gondii. We screened five herbal medicines that have different pharmacological effects and combined them into a prescription according to the traditional Chinese medicine compatibility principle. The drug potential and protective efficacy were evaluated through a mouse model by determining the survival time, the parasite load in blood and tissues, the change of cell proportions in blood and histological detection. The results showed that the survival time of mice in the 500 mg Chinese herbs group and sulfadiazine group was significantly longer than that of the PBS control group. Also the parasite load in blood and tissues of 500 mg Chinese herbs and sulfadiazine groups was significantly lower than that of PBS group at 7 days post infection (dpi), which was in accordance with the result of histological detection. Monocyte and neutrophil of infected mice were remarkably increased while lymphocyte was dramatically decreased compared to that of blank group at 7 dpi. The results demonstrated that the 500 mg dosage of our Chinese herbs could slow down the replication of T. gondii and prolong the survival time of mice and could be considered as possible candidate drug against toxoplasmosis.