Vet World Vol.17 July-2024 Article - 9
Research Article
Veterinary World, 17(7): 1497-1503
https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2024.1497-1503
Effect of neem leaf extract (Azadirachta indica) in reducing the degree of parasitemia and apoptosis in C57BL mice with cerebral malaria
2. Medicine Study Program, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang, Indonesia.
3. Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang, Indonesia.
4. Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang, Indonesia.
5. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, and Health Sciences, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang, Indonesia.
6. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, and Health Sciences, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang, Indonesia.
7. Department of Child Health, Faculty of Medicine, and Health Sciences, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang, Indonesia.
8. Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Faculty of Medicine, and Health Sciences, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang, Indonesia.
9. Department of Agriculture Product Technology, Politeknik Negeri Ketapang, Ketapang, Indonesia.
Background and Aim: Brain malaria, which results from Plasmodium falciparum infection, is responsible for substantial fatalities and health issues. These processes, including cytoadherence, rosetting, and sequestration, induce an immune response, hypoxia, brain microvascular obstruction, disruption of the blood-brain barrier, and cell death. Parasitemia level can reveal the presence of infection and its association with apoptosis-related genes. Neem (Azadirachta indica) leaves with antimalarial properties could replace ineffective Indonesian malaria medications. This study was designed to evaluate the impact of neem leaf extract on cerebral malaria-induced parasitemia and neuron cell apoptosis in mice through an in vivo approach.
Materials and Methods: 13–16 weeks old C57BL mice received infection by Plasmodium berghei strain ANKA. Parasitemia was estimated daily from the mice’s tail blood. 8 mg, 12 mg, and 16 mg of a 96% ethanolic neem leaf extract were orally given for 6 days. Healthy, positive, and negative controls were included for treatment comparisons. On the 7th day, brain tissue was analyzed for (p > 0.05) gene expression. Through immunohistochemistry, both cell apoptosis in neurons expressing caspase-3 within a brain sample and the degree of parasitemia in a blood smear were assessed. The Pearson correlation test and one-way analysis of variance were employed to analyze the data.
Results: Neem leaf extract reduces parasitemia and neuron cell apoptosis at multiple dosages (p < 0.000). Apoptosis in brain neurons and parasitemia show a strong positive correlation (r = +0.939). Neem leaf extract at doses of 12 and 16 mg was the most effective in reducing parasitemia levels and causing cell death.
Conclusion: Neem leaf therapy significantly reduced the degree of parasitemia and cell apoptosis in C57BL mice compared with the control group without treatment (p = 0.05). This shows that neem leaves have the potential to be a candidate drug for malaria.
Keywords: apoptosis, Azadirachta indica, cerebral malaria, neem leaves, parasitemia.
How to cite this article: Rahmah Z, Nirmala KC, Nashichuddin A, Riskiyana R, Milliana A, Indriana N, Astari LF, Ayudianti P, and Kholil M (2024) Effect of neem leaf extract (Azadirachta indica) in reducing the degree of parasitemia and apoptosis in C57BL mice with cerebral malaria, Veterinary World, 17(7):1497–1503.
Received: 2024-02-28 Accepted: 2024-06-07 Published online: 2024-07-10
Corresponding author: E-mail:
DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2024.1497-1503
Copyright: Rahmah, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/ publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
