Related Experiment Videos
Oxidative stress in patients with non-complicated malaria
Adriana Pabón1, Jaime Carmona, Luis C Burgos
1Grupo Malaria, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín-Colombia, Colombia.
Aim:
To compare oxidative stress in adults with non-complicated malaria and healthy controls.
Methodology:
We measured malondialdehyde (MDA), total antioxidant status (TAS), catalase, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX). Oxidative stress was calculated based on MDA/TAS, MDA/GSH-PX and SOD/catalase indexes.
Results:
Mean MDA in patients was 3.9 micromol/L (controls = 1.3 micromol/L). Mean TAS was 0.9 mmol/L in patients and controls. Malaria patients had less catalase activity when compared to controls (209.4 vs. 320.4 k/gr), while SOD and GSH-PX activity was higher (79.4 U/mL, 11,884.2U/L vs. 54.3 U/mL, 9,672.6 U/L). MDA/TAS index was 3.5 fold more in patients than in controls, MDA/GSH-PX and SOD/catalase indexes were increased by 6 and 2.8 fold. MDA levels and MDA/TAS index showed no differences according to malarial history, parasitaemia, Plasmodium species, parasite's stage, place of residence and drinking or smoking habits.
Conclusions:
During acute non-complicated P. falciparum or P. vivax malaria, we observed high oxidative stress. This resulted from lipid peroxidation rather than from a reduced TAS. We propose MDA/TAS index as a useful marker of oxidative stress during malaria infection.