Observation on effects of fructus psoraleae and dihydroartemisinin against Cryptosporidium.

To investigate the effects of fructus psoraleae and dihydroartemisinin in mice infected with Cryptosporidium parvum, mice were received the infection induced by hypodermic injection of dexamethasone. Of 60 mice were divided into 5 groups in random: A (normal group), B (control group), C (therapeutic group of fructus psoraleae), D (therapeutic group of dihydroartemisinin) and E (therapeutic group of combination). According to the period of therapy (1 or 2 weeks),therapeutic groups were furtherly subdivided into A1, A2; B1, B2; C1, C2; D1, D2 and E1, E2. Comparing with control group, the number of Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts in feces were decreased obviously in all treatment groups(P0.05). Pathological and ultrastructural detections of intestine mocusa showed that intestinal epithelium was in repair and the curative effects in combination groups were better than that in single-dose groups(P0.05). It’s apparent that fructus psoraleae and dihydroartemisinin were all effective to mice cryptosporidiosis, and both of them participated in immunoregulation and inflammatory reaction in synergy.