Canine Leishmaniasis Progression is Associated with Vitamin D Deficiency

Abstract

The relationship between vitamin D deficiency and the risk of suffering from a plethora of health disorders, ranging from autoimmune processes to infectious diseases has been widely described. Nonetheless, the potential role of vitamin D in visceral leishmaniasis remains uncharacterized. In the Mediterranean basin, where the dog is leishmania’s main peri-domestic reservoir, control measures against the canine disease have shown beneficial effects on the incidence of human leishmaniasis. In this study, we measured the vitamin D levels in serum samples from a cohort of 68 healthy and disease dogs from a highly endemic area and we have also studied the relationship of these levels with parasitological and immunological parameters. The sick dogs presented significantly lower (P < 0.001) vitamin D levels (19.6 ng/mL) than their non-infected (31.8 ng/mL) and the asymptomatic counterparts (29.6 ng/mL). In addition, vitamin D deficiency correlated with several parameters linked to leishmaniasis progression. However, there was no correlation between vitamin D levels and the Leishmania-specific cellular immune response. Moreover, both the leishmanin skin test and the IFN-γ levels displayed negative correlations with serological, parasitological and clinical signs. Further studies to determine the functional role of vitamin D on the progression and control of canine leishmaniasis are needed.

Vitamin D metabolism in dogs and cats and its relation to diseases not associated with bone metabolism

“…Regarding leishmaniosis, it is known that some protective responses are associated with the activation of specific cell-mediated immunity and a Th1-pro-inflammatory immune response (Rodriguez-cortes et al, 2017). It seems that Th17 cells act synergistically with the Th1 population to control the growth of the pathogen.…”

“…The relationship of vitamin D and diseases has also been investigated in dogs and cats, and some studies found association between low vitamin D status and some types of cancer (Selting, Sharp, Ringold, Thamm, & Backus, 2016;Wakshlag et al, 2011;Weidner et al, 2017), congestive heart failure (Kraus et al, 2014;Osuga et al, 2015), gastrointestinal diseases (Allenspach, Rizzo, Jergens, & Chang, 2017;Gow et al, 2011;Lalor et al, 2014;Titmarsh, Gow, Kilpatrick, Cartwright, et al, 2015;Titmarsh, Gow, Kilpatrick, Sinclair, et al, 2015), acute pancreatitis (Kim et al, 2017), acute polyradiculoneuritis (Laws, Kathrani, Harcourt-Brown, Granger, & Rose, 2018), chronic kidney disease (Cortadellas, Fernandez del Palacio, Talavera, & Bayón, 2010;Galler et al, 2012;Gerber, Hässig, & Reusch, 2003;Gerber, Hauser, & Reusch, 2004;Parker, Harjes, et al, 2017) and infectious diseases (Lalor et al, 2012;Rodriguez-Cortes et al, 2017;Rosa, Schoeman, Berry, Mellanby, & Dvir, 2013;. Although these studies do not prove a cause-effect relationship, they provide a basis for future studies to investigate possible positive effects of vitamin D supplementation on improving health status and reducing the risk of developing diseases.…”

“…The authors believe that there are evidences suggesting that the innate immune system could have a relevant role by promoting the appropriate inflammatory response against the development of the disease(Bhattacharya et al, 2015). On the other hand, no correlation has been found between vitamin D levels and the Leishmania-specific cellular immune response(Rodriguez-Cortes et al, 2017).Considering that hypovitaminosis D is usually observed in humans with tuberculosis,Lalor et al (2012) developed a study to verify whether spontaneous mycobacteria infections in other species were also associated with low vitamin D status. Besides, lower vitamin D concentrations was correlated with several parameters linked to leishmaniasis progression.…”

An Overview of Immunotherapeutic Approaches Against Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis: What Has Been Tested on Dogs and a New Perspective on Improving Treatment Efficacy

“…Dogs lacking this cytokine have more severe clinical symptoms, with higher parasitemia (Martínez-Orellana et al, 2017). Similarly, Th17 cells induce L. infantum control growth (Nascimento et al, 2015;Rodriguez-Cortes et al, 2017).…”

“…In contrast, the type 2 immune response, characterized IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, and TGF-β cytokines, is related to susceptibility in CVL (Sanches et al, 2014;Rodríguez-Cortés et al, 2016;Rodriguez-Cortes et al, 2017;Rossi et al, 2016;Solano-Gallego et al, 2016;Solcà et al, 2016;Tonin et al, 2016;De Martini et al, 2018). These susceptible dogs manifest a common pattern in the progression of clinical signs, with severity and variety of signs increasing with disease progression, in which most clinicopathological changes become evident after 12 months of infection (Foglia Manzillo et al, 2013).…”