Latent Toxoplasma gondii infections are associated with elevated biomarkers of inflammation and vascular injury

Egorov, Andrey I.; Converse, Reagan R.; Griffin, Shannon M.; Styles, Jennifer N.; Sams, Elizabeth; Hudgens, Edward; Wade, Timothy J.

doi:10.1186/s12879-021-05882-6

Cited by 23 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…gondii results in a latent infection that lasts a lifetime. The tissue cysts of this parasite are resistant to virtually all available medications [ 2 , 3 ]. Chronic toxoplasmosis is estimated to affect over a third of humans worldwide [ 4 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is latent Toxoplasma gondii infection associated with the occurrence of schizophrenia? A case-control study

et al. 2022

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Introduction Neurotropic pathogens such as Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) which result in chronic infections in the brain are associated with mental illnesses. In view of this, a growing body of literature has revealed the possible interaction of schizophrenia and T. gondii infection. Method A case-control study was conducted from February 2018 to January 2019 among 47 Schizophrenia patients and 47 age and sex-matched controls. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire. Serum was used for serological analysis of anti-T. gondii IgG and IgM antibodies through chemiluminescent immunoassay. Proportions and mean with standard deviations (SD) were used as descriptive measures and variables with p-values <0.05 were considered as statistically significant and independently associated with schizophrenia. Result The mean ages of schizophrenia patients and controls were 29.64 ± 5.8 yrs and 30.98 ± 7.3 yrs, respectively. We found that 81.9% (77/94) of the study subjects had a positive anti-T. gondii IgG antibody. While the difference is statistically insignificant, schizophrenic patients have a marginally higher seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis than controls (87.2% vs 80.9%; p = 0.398). Schizophrenia cases who live in homes with soil floors have a significantly higher T. gondii infection as compared to those who live in homes with cement/ceramic floors (90.9% vs 33.3%; p = 0.004). Furthermore, there was a significantly lower T. gondii infection among schizophrenic cases who were taking antipsychotic medication for more than three yrs (79.3% vs 100.0%, p = 0.039). On the other hand, among all study subjects who have T. gondii infection, subjects who are addicted to khat and alcohol were about seven times more likely to develop schizophrenia (71.4% vs 47.7%, OR = 7.13, p = 0.024). Conclusion Our data is not sufficient to show a significant positive correlation between T. gondii infection and schizophrenia. For study subjects with T. gondii infection, addiction to khat and alcohol is one of the risk factors for schizophrenia.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is latent Toxoplasma gondii infection associated with the occurrence of schizophrenia? A case-control study

et al. 2022

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“…Several possible hypotheses might explain this finding. First, T. gondii infections are associated with elevated biomarkers of chronic inflammation, such as CRP [ 15 ]. Systemic chronic inflammation can lead to several diseases and cause disability and mortality worldwide [ 16 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The association between Toxoplasma infection and mortality: the NHANES epidemiologic follow-up study

et al. 2022

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Background Toxoplasma gondii has been reported to be associated with higher mortality in patients with schizophrenia. This study aimed to explore the relationship between T. gondii infection and 25-year mortality based on data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) database. Methods Cases with serum T. gondii antibody test results were included in this study and the corresponding mortality dataset was obtained from the US National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to match age and sex between groups. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to evaluate the effect of T. gondii infection on mortality. Results A total of 14,181 cases were included in the analysis, of which 3831 (27.0%) were seropositive for T. gondii antibody. The median follow-up time of the whole cohort was 22.5 (interquartile range 16.3, 24.5) years. A total of 5082 deaths were observed in this cohort, a mortality rate of 35.8%. All-cause mortality was significantly higher in the seropositive group than in the seronegative group (50.0% vs 30.6%, P < 0.001). Kaplan–Meier analysis showed a significant difference in the survival time between two groups before and after PSM. Multivariate analysis showed that T. gondii infection was independently associated with higher all-cause mortality after adjusting for potential confounders. Conclusions Toxoplasma gondii infection is associated with higher mortality in general population. Graphical Abstract

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“…Our study used a comprehensive list of biomarkers and investigated this correlation using a nationally representative sample from the NHANES database. A recent study showed an association between T. gondii IgG antibody and elevated biomarkers of chronic inflammation and vascular injury, including CRP [ 23 ], but they limited the study to a sample from North Carolina.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The parasite also invades various parts of the cardiovascular system causing myocarditis, cardiomyopathies, pericarditis, and pulmonary hypertension [ 22 ]. Previous studies indicated the association between T. gondii infection and elevated levels of biomarkers related to inflammation, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular events, vascular injury, and endothelial adhesion [ 23 ]. These studies focused on establishing associations between exposure to T. gondii and adverse health outcomes, and no clear causation was concluded.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Association of Toxoplasma gondii IgG and Cardiovascular Biomarkers

Babekir

Mostafa

Obeng-Gyasi

2021

IJERPH

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Background: Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is a protozoan parasite with high prevalence worldwide. More than 40 million individuals in the United States carry this parasite. T. gondii infection causes toxoplasmosis, which is the leading cause of death associated with foodborne diseases in the United States. T. gondii infects humans through different routes, and it is capable of invading a wide range of tissues in the human body following the infection. Methods: The main objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of T. gondii among adults in the United States and its association with cardiovascular health using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 2009–2010). Considering the limitation of studies investigating the relationship between T. gondii and cardiovascular biomarkers, this study was focused on assessing the association of T. gondii to nine cardiovascular biomarkers. First, those biomarkers were investigated individually using several statistical tests and models. Second, we developed an overall cardiovascular biomarker index (OCBI) from eight critical biomarkers to better explain the T. gondii potential cumulative effect on the cardiovascular system. These analyses were adjusted for demographic, behavioral, and anthropometric factors. Results:T. gondii IgG antibody-positive participants had significantly higher systolic blood pressure (p = 0.0022), triglycerides (p = 0.0399), C-reactive protein (p = 0.0422), gamma glutamyl transferase (p = 0.0400), and fasting glucose (p = 0.0213) than the negative participants. In addition, the positive participants had significantly lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (p = 0.0431) than the negative participants. Adjusting for age, T. gondii positive had a significant negative association with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (p = 0.0026) and a significant positive association with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (p = 0.0179), triglycerides (p = 0.0154), and gamma glutamyl transferase (p = 0.0026). With the exception of the low-density lipoprotein, these associations remained statistically significant when adjusting for demographic, behavioral, and anthropometric factors. These results potentially indicate the role of T. gondii in driving cardiovascular-related biomarkers toward dysfunction. The analysis also revealed a significant difference in the OCBI among positive and negative participants (p = 0.0020), with the (cumulative) odds of positive participants having a higher level of OCBI being 0.71 times lower than the odds for negative participants (OR = 0.29). Conclusions: Positive T. gondii IgG antibody was significantly associated with adverse effects on cardiovascular-related biomarkers, including systolic blood pressure, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, and gamma glutamyl transferase. T. gondii-positive individuals were more likely to have a lower cardiovascular biomarkers index than the negative individuals. Finally, the prevalence of toxoplasmosis among U.S. adults was associated with demographic characteristics including age, ethnicity, country of birth, and occupation.

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Latent Toxoplasma gondii infections are associated with elevated biomarkers of inflammation and vascular injury

Cited by 23 publications

References 59 publications

Is latent Toxoplasma gondii infection associated with the occurrence of schizophrenia? A case-control study

Is latent Toxoplasma gondii infection associated with the occurrence of schizophrenia? A case-control study

The association between Toxoplasma infection and mortality: the NHANES epidemiologic follow-up study

The Association of Toxoplasma gondii IgG and Cardiovascular Biomarkers

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