Correlation of Toxoplasmosis Seroprevalence and Serum Level of Interleukin-10 in Iraqi Breast Cancer Women

Abstract

Background: Toxoplasmosis is regarded as one of the most important global life-threatening diseases inimmune-compromised people. The intracellular protozoon Toxoplasma gondii is the causative pathogen oftoxoplasmosis. Aim of this study is to investigate the possible association between T. gondii infection andbreast cancer (BC) in Iraqi women, also to assess the effect of T. gondii on interleukin 10 (IL-10) of theimmune response. By ELISA method, blood samples from 81 women with breast cancer and 60 apparentlyhealthy women have been examined for presence of anti-toxoplasma antibodies, also the levels of serumIL-10 were estimated in these subjects. Results showed that women with BC had the highest prevalencerate of toxoplasmosis. The anti- T.gondii antibodies was 38.27% for IgG and 4.93% for IgM, while inthe control group it was 26.66% and 0.0% respectively, with no significant difference for IgG (P =0.148)and IgM (P = 0.081). A highly significant difference was found in the level of IL-10 between BC womenwith toxoplasmosis (10.24%) and BC women without toxoplasmosis (3.6%). These findings suggest thatincidence rate of T. gondii infection is higher in breast cancer women and higher level of IL-10 than theircross-matched control subjects. Therefore, we recommend the inclusion of a screening test for toxoplasmosisand the level of IL-10 in BC patients as in their routine workup.