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DOI: 10.1016/j.homp.2015.12.025
Exploring the model of murine infection by Trypanosoma cruzi to investigate treatment with highly diluted drugs: the influence of Lycopodium clavatum or Phosphorus in Wistar rats
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Publication Date:
27 January 2018 (online)
Research using highly diluted drugs has advanced significantly with increasing number of consolidated research groups. This work evaluates the influence of highly diluted Lycopodium clavatum or Phosphorus in Wistar rats infected by T. cruzi. The experiment was conducted as a blind, controlled and randomized by draw assay and was approved by university ethical committee. 75 male rats (Rattus norvegicus, Wistar lineage), 45 days old, intraperitoneally inoculated with 5 × 106 T. cruzi Y-strain blood trypomastigotes were divided into three groups: IC (infected control group, treated with 7% hydroalcoholic solution), Ly (infected treated with Lycopodium clavatum 13CH), Phos (infected treated with Phosphorus 13 CH). All treatments were offered ad libitum on the second day before the infection, and on the second, fifth and seventh day after infection, provided for 16 consecutive hours. Evaluated parameters: weight, temperature, water and food intake, amount of excreta, intestinal length and diameter, hair aspect, stool consistency, heart and respiratory rates, pre-patent period, parasitemia peak, total parasitemia, evaluation of myenteric neurons, inflammatory infiltrate and cytokines production. Data were statistical compared. Lycopodium and Phosphorus have significant beneficial effects on the clinical evolution of the treated animals. No significant difference was observed for any parasitological parameter evaluated. Ly and Phos groups showed protection of distal colon neurons numbers. In the heart, liver and intestine animals treated with Lycopodium and Phosphorus showed significant less inflammation compared to IC. In striated skeletal muscle, Phosphorus animals showed the number of inflammatory foci higher than IC. In a sequential evaluation, IL1-α, IL1-β, IL4, IL6, IL10, IL12, TNF-α, IFN-γ and GM-CSF levels varied significantly different for Lycopodium clavatum and Phosphorus. The homeopathic treatment with Lycopodium clavatum or Phosphorus medicines (13CH) promoted, in a different way, beneficial effects on several parameters evaluated in T. cruzi infection of Wistar rats. The treated groups establish balance of host-parasite relation differently, with lower cell and tissue damage to the infected host. Lycopodium clavatum and Phosphorus modifies the animals' immune response, promoting less inflammation and protecting the intestine, preserving the myenteric neuronal population.