Parasites, Hosts and Diseases

The Korea Society for Parasitology and Tropical Medicine (대한기생충학·열대의학회)
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The detection of Toxoplasma gondii ME49 infections in BALB/c mice using various techniques

  • Hae-Ji Kang (Center for Translational Antiviral Research, Georgia State University Institute for Biomedical Sciences) ;
  • Jie Mao (Department of Biomedical Science, Graduate School, Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Min-Ju Kim (Department of Biomedical Science, Graduate School, Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Keon-Woong Yoon (Department of Biomedical Science, Graduate School, Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Gi-Deok Eom (Department of Biomedical Science, Graduate School, Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Ki-Back Chu (Medical Research Center for Bioreaction to Reactive Oxygen Species and Biomedical Science Institute, Core Research Institute (CRI), Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Eun-Kyung Moon (Department of Medical Zoology, School of Medicine, Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Fu-Shi Quan (Medical Research Center for Bioreaction to Reactive Oxygen Species and Biomedical Science Institute, Core Research Institute (CRI), Kyung Hee University)
  • Received : 2023.04.14
  • Accepted : 2023.08.23
  • Published : 2023.11.30
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Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii infections are primarily diagnosed by serological assays, whereas molecular and fluorescence-based techniques are garnering attention for their high sensitivity in detecting these infections. Nevertheless, each detection method has its limitations. The toxoplasmosis detection capabilities of most of the currently available methods have not been evaluated under identical experimental conditions. This study aimed to assess the diagnostic potential of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), immunohistochemistry (IHC), and immunofluorescence (IF) in BALB/c mice experimentally infected with various doses of T. gondii ME49. The detection of toxoplasmosis from sera and brain tissues was markedly enhanced in mice subjected to high infection doses (200 and 300 cysts) compared to those subjected to lower doses (10 and 50 cysts) for all the detection methods. Additionally, increased B1 gene expression levels and cyst sizes were observed in the brain tissues of the mice. Importantly, IHC, IF, and ELISA, but not RT-PCR, successfully detected T. gondii infections at the lowest infection dose (10 cysts) in the brain. These findings may prove beneficial while designing experimental methodologies for detecting T. gondii infections in mice.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This study was financially supported by the Core Research Institute (CRI) Program, the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), Ministry of Education (NRF2018R1A6A1A03025124).

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