Could diet composition modulate pathological outcomes in schistosomiasis mansoni? A systematic review of in vivo preclinical evidence

Abstract

Schistosomiasis and malnutrition are often overlapped in poor communities, resulting in disproportionately high mortality rates. Currently, fragmented data make it difficult to define the relationship between diet and schistosomiasis. Thus, we systematically review the preclinical evidence on the impact of diet in Schistosoma mansoni infection. From a structured search, we recovered 27 original articles. All studies used mice and most of them investigated hypoproteic (70.37%), hyperlipidic (22.22%) or vitamin-deficient (7.41%) diets. Diets based on carbohydrate, zinc or milk supplementation were investigated at a reduced frequency (3.70% each). Hypoproteic diets attenuated parasitic load and granulomatous inflammation, but also reduced host resistance to S. mansoni infection, determining higher mortality rates. By stimulating steatohepatitis, parasitic load and granulomatous inflammation, hyperlipidic diets increase organ damage and mortality in infected animals. Although a high-sugar diet and vitamin restriction potentiate and zinc supplementation attenuates S. mansoni infection, the current evidence for these diets remains inconclusive. Analysis of methodological quality indicated that the current evidence is at high risk of bias due to incomplete characterization of the experimental design, diet composition and treatment protocols. From the bias analysis, we report methodological limitations that should be considered to avoid systematic reproduction of inconsistent and poorly reproducible experimental designs.

A Systematic Review of the Potential Effects of Propolis Extracts on Experimentally-induced Diabetes

“…This result indicates that the reporting bias was systematically reproduced through the mechanistic research process, without interpretations of possible sources of bias. The main neglected aspects were randomization, precise georeferencing of the origin of propolis, animal allocation, randomization, and chemical composition of propolis 45 , 46 , 47 . Finally, we make it clear that our objective was not to confront the current results, nor to devalue them, but to verify the possible sources of current methodological bias and, from such notes, provide support for data consistency and reproducibility.…”

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“…This result indicates that the reporting bias was systematically reproduced through the mechanistic research process, without interpretations of possible sources of bias. The main neglected aspects were randomization, precise georeferencing of the origin of propolis, animal allocation, randomization, and chemical composition of propolis [45][46][47]. Finally, we make it clear that our objective was not to confront the current results, nor to devalue them, but to verify the possible sources of current methodological bias and, from such notes, provide support for data consistency and reproducibility.…”

Monotherapy and combination chemotherapy for Chagas disease treatment: a systematic review of clinical efficacy and safety based on randomized controlled trials

“…Qualitative and quantitative data were extracted from all relevant studies included in the systematic review. To this end, we use standardized spreadsheets (data extraction masks) (Marques et al, 2018) structured from basic methodological requirements to characterize studies at different descriptive levels, such as: (i) publication characteristics: research design, authors, year of publication and country where the study was conducted; (ii) patient characteristics: age, sex, and disease stage; (iii) treatment characteristics: drugs and dosimetry (doses, administration frequency and rout, treatment duration, and patient follow-up); (iv) primary outcomes: parasite load (parasitological cure), seroconversion and mortality rates; (v) secondary outcomes: cardiovascular function (electrocardiographic and echocardiographic data), adverse reactions and treatment discontinuation rates.…”