Jorge Enrique Gómez Marín

Neospora caninum: Relación Biológica con Toxoplasma gondii y su Potencial como Zoonosis

Objective. To carry out a systematic review of the literature on the zoonotic potential of Neospora caninum taking into account its biological relationship with Toxoplasma gondii. Materials and methods. A systematic review was carried out, using two databases for the collection of information (Science direct and Scielo), a search engine (Google Scholar) and the National University of Colombia Repository, all documents were organized through the bibliographic manager Mendeley for proper review. Key words like Neosporosis, Neospora caninum , “Toxoplasmosis”, “ Toxoplasma gondii ”, “ Neospora humans”, “ Neospora human infection”, “ Neospora zoonotic” were used. A total of 8 articles were selected that look for the infection in humans. Results. Eight documents concerning the subject of Neospora in humans were used, whereas these reports show evidence of seropositivity in human samples of anti- N. caninum no studies were found that look for the isolation of the parasite in human tissues (by molecular or in vitro culture). Conclusions. According to the results of these studies, it is not ruled out that the existence of cross-reactions with T. gondii and therefore it should not be ruled out that Neosporosis can behave as a zoonosis. In this regard, more research is required to demonstrate exposure, associated clinical signs, or pathologies related to this infection.

Possibilities for Immunomodulation in Congenital Toxoplasmosis

TO THE EDITOR—I read with interest the nice work by the UFGM Congenital Toxoplasmosis Brazilian group, which reported cytokine signatures in congenital toxoplasmosis [1]. This work shed light about the cells producing the strikingly elevated levels of interleukin 10 seen in congenitally infected children and confirms our previous findings [2]. However, the authors do not describe how many children had prenatal treatment, and I am curious to know whether the cytokine patterns were influenced by this factor. In our previous work, we also showed high interleukin 10 levels in children with congenital toxoplasmosis and demonstrated the possibility of changing, in ex vivo experiments, the T-helper type 2 response to a T-helper type 1 response by using peptides from nonvirulent strains [2]. One future goal would be to induce protective cytokine profiles to improve therapeutic responses to antiparasitic drugs or to prevent clinical reactivation in congenitally infected children. I congratulate my Brazilian colleagues for this important contribution to our knowledge regarding the immune response against this prevalent congenital infection.