Studies on hepatic oxidative stress and antioxidant defence system during chloroquine/poly ICLC treatment of Plasmodium yoelii nigeriensis infected mice

Reactive oxygen species are important mediators of tissue injury during malaria infection. The status of hepatic oxidative stress and antioxidant defence indices were studied during Plasmodium yoelii nigeriensis (P. y. nigeriensis) infection and chloroquine/polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid stabilized with polylysine and carboxymethylcellulose (poly ICLC) treatment of infected mice. P. y. nigeriensis infection resulted in a significant increase in oxidative stress indices viz., xanthine oxidase and rate of lipid peroxidation (LPO). This was accompanied by a highly significant increase in antioxidant defence indices viz., reduced glutathione (GSH) and glutathione reductase while superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase showed a highly significant decrease with respect to normal mice. Chloroquine treatment of infected mice caused a decrease in parasitaemia which was associated with restoration of indices altered during infection towards normalization. Poly ICLC treatment of infected mice caused no change in blood parasitaemia but resulted in a significant increase in GSH, glutathione reductase, SOD and catalase with respect to infected mice. Combination therapy of chloroquine and poly ICLC resulted in clearance of parasitaemia and restoration of all oxidative stress and antioxidant defence indices to normal levels.