Figure 8
From: Venom alkaloids against Chagas disease parasite: search for effective therapies
Effects of the solenopsins on macrophages infected with Trypanossoma cruzi. Mouse peritoneal macrophages plated on glass cover slips in 12-well plates were incubated with tissue culture trypomastigotes (TCTs) at a multiplicity of infection of 3 parasites per cell. After 12 h, wells were washed 5 × and the cultures were incubated in the absence (C+) or presence of solenopsins from Solenopsis invicta (INV) and S. saevissima (SAE) (A) or benznidazole (BENZ) (B) as indicated in the bottom of each graph. After 48 h, the cover slips were washed, and the cells were fixed and stained with InstantProv haematological stain. The infection index based in the percentage of infected macrophages and the number of amastigotes per infected macrophage was estimated by direct counting of ≥ 300 fields. Bar plots are means and different letters on the bars indicate significant difference between the treatments by nonparametric Dunn's test posthoc to Kruskal–Wallis at alpha = 0.05 (n = 2). For details on analyses (e.g. p values), see the supplementary R script file.
