skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Effect of selenium (Se) deficiency on the anti-malarial action of Qinghaosu (QHS) in mice

Conference · · Fed. Proc., Fed. Am. Soc. Exp. Biol.; (United States)
OSTI ID:5446788

QHS is an endoperoxide, so it occurred to the authors that its anti-malarial action might be potentiated by low glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity. Weanling female mice were fed 1 of 4 diets: chow or a Torula yeast-based diet supplemented with 0, 0.1 or 0.5 ppm Se as Na/sub 2/SeO/sub 3/. After 6 weeks, mean hepatic GSH-Px activities and plasma Se levels in these 4 dietary groups were 17.3, 0.1, 5.4, and 14.5 munits/mg protein and 242, 4, 230, and 532 ng/ml, respectively. At this time, all mice were inoculated i.p. with asexual blood stages of Plasmodium yoelii. Then groups of 7 or 8 mice fed each diet were given 0, 4, 16, or 64 mg QHS/kg orally bid at 3, 4, and 5 days post inoculation. On the 6th day, blood films were taken and antimalarial activity was assessed by determining % parasitemia (% PARA). Mice given 0 or 4 mg QHS/kg averaged 47% PARA and this was not affected by diet. Mice receiving 64 mg QHS/kg averaged about 1% PARA irrespective of diet. However, mice given 16 mg QHS/kg had 25% PARA when fed chow but only 8 to 11% PARA when fed the Torula diet, regardless of Se intake. Thus, while Se status did not appear to influence the antimalarial potency of QHS, some factor(s) in the Torula diet enhanced its activity at intermediate doses vs. the chow diet.

Research Organization:
Dept. of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD
OSTI ID:
5446788
Report Number(s):
CONF-8604222-
Journal Information:
Fed. Proc., Fed. Am. Soc. Exp. Biol.; (United States), Vol. 45:3; Conference: 70. annual meeting of the Federation of American Society for Experimental Biology, St. Louis, MO, USA, 13 Apr 1986
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English