Introduction: The World Health Organization estimates that about 25 million pregnant mothers are currently at risk for malaria, and that malaria accounts for over 10, 000 maternal and 200, 000 neonatal deaths per year. The current hypothesis of early life programming supports the premise that many developmental delay and disorders may have their origin Inutero. Therefore, the current study aimed at evaluating the possible impact of experimental malaria exposure In-utero on neurobehavioral profile in mice offspring. Methods: Pregnant mice were intraperitoneally infected on gestational day 13 with 1. 02×105 infected red blood cells. Pregnant mice (both infected and uninfected) were allowed to deliver and the offspring were monitored up to postnatal day 42 when anxiety-like, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and locomotor activity were evaluated using elevated plus maze, marble burying, and Open Field Test, respectively. Results: The current study showed that maternal infection with PLASMODIUM BERGHEI resulted in an interesting behavior in offspring characterized by increased anxiety-like and OCD behaviors. Locomotor activity was however not affected. Conclusion: It may be concluded that In-utero exposure to experimental malaria in mice causes behavioral changes.

Background: Malaria is caused by a parasitic protozoan called PLASMODIUM with an estimated mortality rate of one million people annually and it is estimated that half of the world’s population are at risk for this disease.Objectives: The current study aimed to compare the effect of hydroxychloroquine and pyrimethamine with sulfadoxinepyrimethamine to treat PLASMODIUM BERGHEI infection in mice. Pyrimethamine, hydroxychloroquine and sulfadoxinepyrimethamine were used in the current study.Methods: Four groups of mice each including nine mice were selected. The mice were infected by intraperitoneally injection of PLASMODIUM BERGHEIinfected red blood cells. One group was considered as a positive control and three other ones received each one of the drugs. On days 4, 7, 14, 21 and 28, a blood smear was prepared from each mouse, stained with Giemsa and the parasitemia rate was calculated.Results: Parasitemia in the positive control group showed an increaseondays fourandseven at a level of 5.9% and 23.7%, respectively, which was statistically significant compared with the other groups (P<0.05). The parasitemia remarkably decreased in the group receiving sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine than in the one taking pyrimethamine (P<0.05). In addition, the mortality rate in mice treated with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine was lower than those of the other groups (P<0.05). The survival time in the group treated with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine was 28 days on average and in the group treated with pyrimethamine and hydroxychloroquine were 15.56 and 26.44 days, respectively.Conclusions: The results of the article suggested that malaria treatment strategy shifts completely from the monotherapy; therefore, the combination drugs should be used for this purpose, especially in endemic areas.

Background and objectives: Vitex doniana Sweet (Lamiaceae) is used to treat various ailments, including respiratory infections, liver diseases, anaemia and jaundice. This study assessed the in vitro antioxidant and membrane stabilization potential, as well as the protective impact of semi-purified solvent fractions of V. doniana leaves against PLASMODIUM BERGHEI-passaged mice. Methods: Dried leaves were extracted with ethanol, followed by fractionation using a solvent-gradient system of increasing polarity (hexane, ethyl acetate, and methanol), and the concentrated fractions were obtained. Forty-two mice were randomly divided into seven groups as: group 1 (normal control), group 2 (disease control, untreated), while groups 3 to 7 received the standard drugs (artequick and chloroquine) and combined V. doniana fraction (VDF, 100 mg/kg) at varying ratios. Results: Comparatively to V. doniana extract, the fractions (F6, F8) displayed considerable antioxidant activity by scavenging O2 •, –,•,, OH and DPPH radicals, and effectively reduced Fe 3+ 2+ to Fe. VDF (1: 1) at different concentrations (200, 400, 600 µ, g/mL) inhibited erythrocyte haemolysis by 91. 29±, 3. 61%, 80. 52±, 0. 13%, 75. 68±, 1. 45% and 80. 57±, 0. 94%, respectively. Also, the VDF in synergy with artequick and chloroquine decreased parasitaemia levels by 4. 25±, 0. 25% and 4. 65±, 0. 28% compared to the disease control (7. 93±, 1. 61%). The combined fractions significantly normalized the plasma calcium concentration (1. 85±, 0. 17 mg/dL, 1. 65±, 0. 21 mg/dL, 1. 72±, 0. 23 mg/dL, 1. 65±, 0. 22 mg/dL) for groups 3 to 6 compared to the disease control (1. 30±, 0. 09 mg/dL), while the bodyweights presented no significant change in all experimental groups. Conclusion: The results indicate the promising potential of V. doniana as a drug candidate in managing malarial infection.

Background: In addition to resistance against drugs, no new drugs have reached the market during the last decade for malaria treatment. This implies the urgent need to search for new drugs from diff erent sources. Medicinal plants are one of such sources for novel drugs. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to investigate antimalarial activity of crude extract of leaves of Moringa oleifera Lam (Moringaceae) in PLASMODIUM BERGHEI in a mice model. Methods: The acute toxicity test was used as per standard guidelines. To determine parasite inhibition, 4-day Peter’ s suppressive test was done. Curative and prophylactic tests were done by applying standard methods. Windows SPSS version 16 was used to analyse the data and analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Post Hoc Tukey’ s HSD to compare results between groups. Results: Death was not observed up to a dose of 2000 mg/kg of the plant extract. In all mice treated with the extract, the level of parasitaemia was signifi cantly reduced in comparison with the control group (P < 0. 001) and also a very signifi cant diff erence was observed in comparison with the chloroquine treated group (P < 0. 0001) with lower doses. Mean survival time was signifi cantly increased at all treatment doses. It reduced parasitemia in a dose-dependent manner in both curative and prophylactic activity tests resulting in a signifi cant (P < 0. 05) reduction of parasitaemia in comparison with the control group. Conclusions: The result of the current study revealed that the extract possessed signifi cant anti-plasmodial activity as displayed by its ability to suppress P. BERGHEI infection in mice. The present study can be considered as confi rmation for traditionally claimed use of the plant against malaria treatment.