CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Larrea divaricata is a burst with several applications in argentinean folk medicine. The aim of this work was test an alternative phytotherapy treatment against Candida albicans infection by enhancing the activity of murine macrophages (MO). In this work healthy and infected mice were used and the following groups were test in agreement with the treatment: a) PBS (control group); b) fraction obtained from L. divaricata (F1); c) TNFá; d) antibody against dectin-1(15Y9), which is a blocker of â-glucans receptor; e) F1+TNFá; f) F1+15Y9; g) TNFá+15Y9 and h) F1+TNFá+15Y9. Treatments were started 24h after infection and were administered once a day during 3 days. MO were harvested, and organs (liver, spleen and kidney) and serum were extracted. Phagocytosis activity, superoxide production by NBT test, Nitric oxide (NO) levels, acid phosphatase activity and viability by MTT test were performed to determinate MO activity. The colony forming units (CFU) were counted in organs homogenates and serum TNFá, IL-10 and NO were determined. Results showed that F1 increase phagocytosis in both: healthy and infected mice (p<0.05). The NO was increased in culture supernatants and serum (p<0.05) of infected mice treated with (e) procedure. This treatment also showed the highest increase of reduced NBT (p<0.01) and acid phosphatase activity (p<0.05). Serum from infected mice showed that F1 increased TNFá production (p<0.05), but IL-10 was not modified. Infection was eliminated from liver and kidney in mice treated with F1 (p<0.01). When treatment (e) was tested the infection of the three study organs was eliminated (p<0.05). The mice treated with 15Y9 did not show any signs of MO activation or clearance of the infection. We suggest that the pathogen is eliminated through the activation of the innate immune system and we could observe a synergistic effect between F1 and TNFá treatment. We propose that the use of F1 and TNFá could be a valuable treatment for C. albicans infection.