The effect of malaria and anti-malarial drugs on skeletal and cardiac muscles

Abstract

Malaria remains one of the most important infectious diseases in the world, being a significant public health problem associated with poverty and it is one of the main obstacles to the economy of an endemic country. Among the several complications, the effects of malaria seem to target the skeletal muscle system, leading to symptoms, such as muscle aches, muscle contractures, muscle fatigue, muscle pain, and muscle weakness. Malaria cause also parasitic coronary artery occlusion. This article reviews the current knowledge regarding the effect of malaria disease and the anti-malarial drugs on skeletal and cardiac muscles. Research articles and case report publications that addressed aspects that are important for understanding the involvement of malaria parasites and anti-malarial therapies affecting skeletal and cardiac muscles were analysed and their findings summarized. Sequestration of red blood cells, increased levels of serum creatine kinase and reduced muscle content of essential contractile proteins are some of the potential biomarkers of the damage levels of skeletal and cardiac muscles. These biomarkers might be useful for prevention of complications and determining the effectiveness of interventions designed to protect cardiac and skeletal muscles from malaria-induced damage.

Mouse skeletal muscles infected with Plasmodium berghei and Plasmodium chabaudi reveal a crosstalk between lipid mediators and gene expression

“…Malaria is one of the most prevalent infectious disease in the world, causing splenomegaly and damage in other organs such as liver and kidney [8]. Remarkably, malaria infection can also cause muscle damage due to the combination of ischemia, in ammation, and oxidative stress [8].…”

“…Malaria is one of the most prevalent infectious disease in the world, causing splenomegaly and damage in other organs such as liver and kidney [8]. Remarkably, malaria infection can also cause muscle damage due to the combination of ischemia, in ammation, and oxidative stress [8]. Considering the vital importance of the skeletal muscles as the largest organ-system in the body, comprising nearly 50% of its mass and largely responsible for the regulation and modulation of overall metabolism, the potential molecular mechanisms of Plasmodium infection affecting skeletal muscles of mice was rst investigated.…”

“…In contrast, ω-3 PUFAs show anti-in ammatory and pro-resolving activities to resolve in ammation effectively, and alter the function of vascular and carcinogen biomarkers, thus reducing the risk of cancer [44,46,47]. Considering that malaria is known as an in ammatory disease, with recognized symptoms, such as fever and headache, signs, such as splenomegaly, and damage in other organs such as liver and kidney [8], the ndings in this study corroborated with those assessments, since all LMs found on signi cantly higher concentrations compared to the controls are from ω-6 pathway (AA and LA pathways, Table 2), while the lipids found at remarkably lower concentrations comparing to the controls are related to ω-3 pathway (EPA and DHA pathways, Table 2). Accordingly, a signi cantly higher AA/EPA ratio was also found in Plasmodium infected mice compared to uninfected ones.…”

“…Malaria pathogenesis is a process by which malaria parasites cause illness, abnormal function and damage in the hosts. The malaria pathogens have been related to cause detrimental effects on skeletal muscles of animals and humans [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. In addition of affecting skeletal muscles, severe malaria may cause damage on cardiac muscles [10][11][12].…”

Mouse skeletal muscles infected with Plasmodium berghei and Plasmodium chabaudi reveal a crosstalk between lipid mediators and gene expression

“…Malaria is one of the most prevalent infectious disease in the world, causing splenomegaly, a recognized malaria symptom, and damage in other organs such as liver and kidney [8]. Currently at least 3.2 billion humans are at risk of exposure to malaria.…”