Chloroquine acts on erythrocytes parasitized by a P. berghei sensitive strain, inducing a dramatic decrease of the intra erythrocytic reduced glutathione. This reduction follows a decrease of the glutathione reductase activity. Contrarily when erythrocytes are parasitized by a P. berghei resistant strain neither the intra erythrocytic reduced glutathione nor the glutathione reductase activity are modified by the action of chloroquine. Glutathione metabolism could be the main target of action of chloroquine in malaria infection.

Animals↗

PubMed1984

Aspiration biopsy of peripheral lesions of lung.

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Biopsy, Needle↗

PubMed1983

Interactions of protein calorie malnutrition, malaria infection and immune responses.

The course of parasitaemia and certain immune responses in protein or calorie-deficient albino rats infected with Plasmodium berghei (NICD) were studied. Wide variations observed in the course of parasitaemia in protein-deficient animals were (a) prolonged prepatent period, short patent period with low parasitaemia (50% of animals), (b) short prepatent period and an inability to resolve the infection (14% of animals) and (c) no patent parasitaemia at any stage of observation (23.5% of animals). The calorie-deficient animals had significantly lower parasitaemia (P less than 0.05) compared with well fed animals. Protein deficiency resulted in depression of T-dependent immune responses in uninfected as well as P. berghei-infected animals. The outcome of the parasitaemia in protein- as well as calorie-deficient animals seems to be the combined result of deficiencies of certain essential nutrients, proteins and calories in the diet as well as the immune responses of the host.

Animals↗

PubMed1983

Variable virulence of isolates of Giardia lamblia in mice.

Groups of inbred mice were inoculated intraoesophageally with Giardia lamblia cysts isolated from the stools of 15 patients with various clinical conditions: symptomatic diarrhoeic, symptomatic non-diarrhoeic and asymptomatic cyst carriers. The virulence of these isolates was studied in terms of two-hour cyst excretion rate and trophozoite counts in the duodenum. The basic pattern of the cyst excretion was similar in all the groups: cysts appeared in the stools by Day 3 +/- 1, reaching a maximum by Day 11 +/- 2. There was then a gradual decline until Day 23 +/- 2, with a low output until Day 31 post-inoculation. However, statistically significantly higher numbers of cysts were excreted by animals which had received cysts isolated from symptomatic diarrhoeic patients than by mice which received cysts from symptomatic non-diarrhoeic or asymptomatic cases. Identical results were obtained with the trophozoite counts. Haemagglutinating (HA) antibodies appeared after Day 11 post-inoculation in each group regardless of different cyst isolates, and the HA titre increased until Day 31 post-inoculation. The results indicate that variable symptomatology in patients could be due to variation in the virulence of the parasite.

Adult↗

PubMed1983