In view of the fact that the antimalarial effects of artemisinins are significant but the mechanism has not yet been clarified and there are many different opinions, it is possible that artemisinins can produce high anti-malarial efficacy through various mechanisms and multiple pathways. In addition, the researches on the pathogenesis of malaria "erythrocyte membrane plasmodial surface anion channel (PSAC)" in the past few years have provided more positive findings, which may confirm and discover the new antimalarial mechanism of artemisinins. This paper was as to study the effect of dihydroartemisinin (DHA) in vitro on erythrocyte membrane permeability of HB3 plasmodium infection, with using the mechanism of 5% sorbitol can be used to kill the Plasmodium falciparum in red blood cell membrane selectively, the effectual difference of sorbitol on the killing of P. falciparum with adding DHA or not was detected, so as to investigate whether DHA can affect the permeability of the erythrocyte membrane. Result showed that, Pre-stimulation with 10 nmol·L⁻¹ DHA (the final concentration of plasmodium in vitro culture system) for 30 min could significantly decrease the killing effect of sorbitol on the HB3 plasmodium in the P. falciparum erythrocytic cycle, and DHA may inhibit the permeability of the erythrocyte membrane for preventing sorbitol through the red blood cell membrane, thereby reducing the killing effect of sorbitol on the P. falciparum.
Keywords: HB3 plasmodium; dihydroartemisinin(DHA); erythrocyte membrane permeability; sorbitol.
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