Artemether and
artesunate, derivatives of the
antimalarial artemisinin, as well as their main metabolite,
dihydroartemisinin, all exhibit antischistosomal activities. The purpose of the current study was to compare the effects of
artemether,
artesunate and
dihydroartemisinin administered orally at multiple doses or combination in treatment of mice infected with Schistosoma japonicum. We carried out experiments with mice, infected with 40 cercariae of S. japonicum, and treated with
artemether,
artesunate and
dihydroartemisinin (all at a single dose of 300 mg/kg, and the dose of the mixed three drugs is also 300 mg/kg) at multiple doses or combination
therapy on days 6-8 or 34-36 post-
infection. Administration with
artemether,
artesunate or
dihydroartemisinin for 3 successive days reduced total worm burdens by 79.5-86% (30.86 ± 4.98 of mean total worm burden in control), female worm burdens by 79.4-86.7% (11.29 ± 2.63 of mean female worm burden in control) (all P values <0.01 vs. control), depending on different treatment protocols given on days 6-8 post-
infection. However, no differences were seen between each treatment group (all P > 0.05). While the same treatment was given on days 34-36 post-
infection, total worm burden reductions of 73.8-75.8% were achieved (29.44 ± 3.36 of mean total worm burden in control), which were significant when compared with the untreated control group (all P values <0.01). In all different treatment groups, female worm reductions (ranging from 88.7% to 93.1%, while the mean female worm burden in control is 10.33 ± 1.80) were consistently higher than the total worm reductions, resulting always in significantly lower female worm burdens when compared to the corresponding control (all P values < 0.01). However, there were no significant differences found between each treatment group (all P values >0.05). It is concluded that
artemether,
artesunate and
dihydroartemisinin can be used to control
schistosomiasis japonica, as a strategy to prevent S. japonicum
infection. Administration with
artemether,
artesunate and
dihydroartemisinin at multiple doses or in combined treatment damages both juvenile and adult S. japonicum, without statistically significant differences among the three drugs at the same dose.