NO EFFECT OF HUMAN SERUM AND ERYTHROCYTES ENRICHED IN N-3 FATTY-ACIDSBY ORAL INTAKE ON PLASMODIUM-FALCIPARUM BLOODSTAGE PARASITES INVITRO

To examine the effect of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) on the erythrocytic growth of Plasmodium falciparum, serum and erythrocy tes were separated from blood of a healthy donor before and after he h ad taken fish oil capsules for 8 days. Such intake supplied an amount of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5n-3) of 3.5 g/d and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) of 2.5 g/d and 24 mg/d of total tocopherol. Post- intake fish oil serum (post-s) and erythrocytes (post-e) were tested i n vitro for inhibitory activity against blood stages of P. falciparum compared with pre-intake serum (pre-s) and pre-intake erythrocyte (pre -e). Also the effect of EPA and arachidonic acid (AA, 20:4n-6) on the erythrocytic growth of P. falciparum was tested using in vitro assays. The results show that both post-s and post-e had no antimalarial acti vity on P. falciparum. No differential antimalarial effect was observe d for 20:5n-3 compared with 20:4n-6, which at high concentrations (>40 muM) had an anti-schizont-growth effect.