Abstract
Filariases are caused by onchocercid nematodes that are transmitted by arthropod vectors. More than 180 million people are infected worldwide. Mass drug administration has been set up in many endemic areas to control the parasite burden. Although very successful in limiting microfilarial load, transmission has not been completely interrupted in such areas. A proportion of infected patients with lymphatic filariasis or loiasis are known to be amicrofilaremic, as they do not present microfilariae in their bloodstream despite the presence of adult worms. A mirror status also exists in CBA/Ca mice infected with Litomosoides sigmodontis, the well-established model of filariasis. Using this model, the goal of this study was to determine if the kinetics of blood clearance of microfilariae differed between amicrofilaremic CBA/Ca mice and microfilaremic BALB/c mice. For this purpose, a qPCR approach was devised to detect microfilariae in different tissues, after a controlled inoculation of microfilariae. We showed that the rapid clearance of microfilariae from the pleural cavity or from the bloodstream of CBA/Ca mice was associated with a massive accumulation of first stage larvae in the lungs, liver and spleen.
Highlights
Filariases are vector-borne disabling diseases, mostly tropical
Genomic DNA of microfilariae was amplified by qPCR, and the microfilariae count determined according to a standard curve created for each organ
The pleural cavity is the site of microfilariae (Mfs) release by adult worms after natural infection, and from there they reach the blood circulation
Summary
The filarial nematodes causing the diseases are located in various host tissues, e.g. lymphatic vessels, connective tissues or coelomic cavities (Bain & Babayan, 2003; Bain et al, 1994). There, they mature and release microfilariae, which circulate either in the bloodstream for some species or in the dermis for others (Bain & Babayan, 2003). In lymphatic filariasis infected individuals, TGF-β single nucleotide polymorphism has been associated with microfilaremic/amicrofilaremic status (Debrah et al, 2011) and latent infection of Wuchereria bancrofti has been shown to be associated with an elevated adaptive immune response (Arndts et al, 2012) This amicrofilaremic/microfilaremic profile is elegantly mirrored by mice models of filarial disease
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