Leishmania infection and neuroinflammation: Specific chemokine profile and absence of parasites in the brain of naturally-infected dogs

• Autor(a) principal: Melo, Guilherme D. [UNESP]
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Silva, José Eduardo S. [UNESP], Grano, Fernanda G. [UNESP], Souza, Milena S. [UNESP], Machado, Gisele F. [UNESP]
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroim.2015.10.004; http://hdl.handle.net/11449/168161
• topic: Central nervous system; Chemokine CCL3; Chemokine CCL4; Chemokine CCL5; T lymphocytes; Visceral leishmaniasis

Visceral leishmaniasis is a chronic disease caused by Leishmania infantum. We aimed to detect the parasite in the brain of fifteen naturally-infected dogs using in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry, and the gene expression of selected chemokines by RT-qPCR. We detected no parasite in the brain, but perivascular deposition of parasite DNA and IgG in the choroid plexus. We noticed up-regulation of CCL-3, CCL-4 and CCL-5, coherent with T lymphocyte accumulation, stating the brain as a pro-inflammatory environment. Indeed, not necessarily the parasite itself, but rather its DNA seems to act as a trigger to promote brain inflammation during visceral leishmaniasis.