Effect of matrine and albendazole on Echinococcus multilocularis infection in mice

To evaluate the effect of matrine(Mat) on experimental secondary Echinococcus multilocularis in mice and synergistic effect of combined administration with albendazole(ABZ ). Mice infected with E.multilocularis were divided into four groups randomly,including Matrine alone,Albendanzole alone,combination of the two drugs as above and control. At the same time ,selecting healthy mice as blank. After being treated 60 days ,the mice were dissected . The major judging criteria including cyst wet weight,thymus index,spleen index , inhibition rate, and histopathological changes of cyst both microscopically and electron microscopically. Matrine alone or combination with Albendazole had obviously effect against growing of E.multilocularis cyst(Inhibition rates were 77.61% and 89.88% respectively).There was significant difference in the cyst wet weight between therapeutical groups and control as shown by the results in mice(P 0.01); the thymus index in the blank group was lower than that in the Echinococcus multilocularis infection groups,but the spleen index in the blank group was higher than that in the Echinococcus multilocularis infection groups(P0.05). Matrine had obvious inhibitory effec against E.multilocularis. The combination of the Matrine with Albendazole had stronger inhibition action,which indicated that Matrine could strengthen Albendazole's effect and had synergetic action with Albendazole against E. multilocularis.