Full text

 

 

J. Venom. Anim. Toxins incl. Trop. Dis.

V.21, 2015.

Original paper - ISSN 1678-9199.

 

Seroepidemiological analysis of toxoplasmosis in college students

 
Jaqueline Polizeli Rodrigues 4, Fernando Frei 1, Italmar Teodorico Navarro 2, Luciana Pereira Silva 1, Monica Yonashiro Marcelino 3, Heitor Franco de Andrade-Junior 4, Carolina Arruda de Faria 5, Marislene Santos 1, João Tadeu Ribeiro-Paes 1  6

1 Department of Biological Sciences, (UNESP), Assis, São Paulo State, Brazil

2 Department of Veterinary Medicine, Londrina State University, Londrina, Paraná State, Brazil

3 Graduate Program in Biotechnology, University of São Paulo (USP)/Butantan Institute/Institute for Technological Research (IPT), São Paulo, São Paulo State, Brazil

4 Institute of Tropical Medicine of São Paulo, University of São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, São Paulo State, Brazil

5 Department of Genetics, Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo (USP), Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo State, Brazil

6 Laboratório de Genética e Terapia Celular (GenTe CeL), Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Campus de Assis, Av. Dom Antônio, 2100, Assis, SP CEP 19.806-900, Brazil

 

ABSTRACT

Background

Toxoplasmosis is a zoonosis caused by an obligate intracellular parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, which affects warm-blooded animals including humans. Its prevalence rates usually vary in different regions of the planet.

Methods

In this study, an analysis of the seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis among Brazilian students was proposed by means of IgG specific antibodies detection. The presence of anti-Toxoplasma gondiiantibodies by indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT) was also evaluated in order to compare it with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and to assess the use of 2,2′-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) and o-phenylenediamine dihydrochloride chromogens.

Results

The IFAT method showed a seroprevalence of 22.3%. These results were similar to those obtained by ELISA (24.1%). The seroprevalence was directly estimated from the IgG avidity, which showed that in a sample of 112 students, three of them had acute infection, an incidence of 1.6% in the studied population.

 
Conclusion

In this study, the use of different chromogenic substrates in immunoenzymatic ELISA assays did not display different sensitivity in the detection of T. gondii-reagent serum. The extrapolation of results to this population must be carefully considered, since the investigation was conducted on a reduced sample. However, it allows us to emphasize the importance of careful and well prepared studies to identify risk factors for toxoplasmosis, to adopt preventive measures and to offer guidance to at-risk populations about the disease.

 

Key words: Toxoplasma gondii; Toxoplasmosis; Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; Indirect fluorescent antibody test; Seroprevalence; Epidemiology

 

Received: June 16, 2014; Accepted: December 17, 2014; Revised: January 5, 2015

 

Corresponding author: João T Ribeiro-Paes jtrpaes@yahoo.com.br

 

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

 

Authors' contributions

JTRP, ITN and JPR conceived the project and experimental design. JPR, MS and MYM contributed to the execution and data analysis of the project. FF, ITN, LPS, HFAJ and CAF performed statistical analysis and discussion of the data. All the authors contributed to data analysis, writing, and revision of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.