Acta tropica
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Aiming to study the influence of administration of avocado/soybean unsaponifiable (ASU) alone or concurrently with praziquantel (PZQ) on Schistosoma mansoni-infected mice, this study was established. ASU (300mg/kg) was administered orally at 3 time intervals; 30 days prior to infection, 1 day post-infection (pi), 3 weeks pi and continued until week 7 pi. All the mice were sacrificed 9 weeks pi. ⋯ The time and duration of ASU administration clearly affected the worm and egg loads. ASU significantly reduced granuloma sizes, and the levels of the cytokines, interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) and interleukin-4 (IL-4), in both infected and PZQ-treated groups indicating its anti-inflammatory activity. Taken together, these findings suggest that long term administration of ASU may result in a mild course of murine schistosomiasis and may be a promising complementary treatment to PZQ.