Evaluation of acute phase protein indexes in dogs with leishmaniasis at diagnosis, during and after short-term treatment

Abstract

An acute phase index based on a combination of acute phase proteins which permitted monitoring the response to therapy of canine leishmaniasis was developed and evaluated in this study. Six dogs naturally infected by Leishmania infantum were treated with meglumine antimoniate (Glucantime  , Merial, Lyon, France) 100 mg/kg/day sc, given concurrently for 20 days with allopurinol (Zyloric  , Glaxo Wellcome, Madrid, Spain) 30 mg/kg/day po and then, allopurinol alone for one month at the same dosage. Blood samples for acute phase proteins were obtained on different days before and after the beginning of treatment and two groups of indexes were calculated: (1) Indexes that combined one positive and one negative acute phase protein and (2) Indexes that combined two positive and one negative acute phase proteins. All calculated indexes were significantly higher in animals with leishmaniasis compared with clinically healthy dogs (n = 8) and a decrease was observed in all dogs tested during the treatment. Indexes that combined C-reactive protein (CRP) and ceruloplasmin (CP) with other proteins showed greater percentages of decrease that were statistically significant. Among these, the index CRP*CP/Alb was selected as the optimum since it showed a larger and faster decrease compared with the others as well as with individual proteins alone. These results would support the use of selected acute phase indexes, especially the CRP*CP/Alb index, to suspect about a leishmaniotic dogs and to monitor their response to treatment.

Changes in the Concentrations of Some Plasma Proteins During Acute Inflammation in Dogs

“…Nowadays, albumin is classified as negative APPs. The observed decrease in serum albumin concentration supports the view that albumin is a negative APPs in all mammalian species by other researchers [7,10,11,12]. The decreasing of albumin in our study confirm relating of it as a negative APPs.…”

“…The sensitivity and specificity of the A/G ratio for detecting clinical or subclinical disease are not as high as those of positive APPs [4]. In healthy dogs for the whole experimental period and in dogs before inoculation, the plasma total protein concentrations were closely related to the upper limits of the usual ranges defined in adult dogs, as indicated by some authors [10] (48-66 g/L) and by Valladares et al [17] (54-73 g/L). During the whole post inoculation period the TP levels in our study remain unchangeable.…”

The effects of increased heme oxygenase-1 on the lymphoproliferative response in dogs with visceral leishmaniasis

“…Increases in the levels of this metabolite have been described in intravascular hemolytic diseases, such as malaria (Andrade et al, 2010;Sinha et al, 2008). Both ferritin and haptoglobin are acutephase inflammatory proteins (Ceron et al, 2005) and increased serum levels of these substances have already been demonstrated in dogs with clinical VL (Martinez-Subiela et al, 2014;Martínez-Subiela et al, 2002;Martinez-Subiela and Ceron, 2005). This indicates that the increase in these protein levels could also be a consequence of the inflammatory process.…”

Serum Acute Phase Proteins as Clinical Phase Indicators and Outcome Predictors in Naturally Occurring Canine Monocytic Ehrlichiosis

“…Most importantly, exaggerated APP activity was documented in dogs with severe BM suppression, indicating that the so-called ''acute phase'' proteins are expressed and secreted in stages beyond the acute phase, in chronic or relapsing conditions. 8,10,[20][21][22] Therefore, selected APPs such as CRP, SAA, and Hp may be useful in assessing the clinical severity of CME, ideally in association with standard clinicopathological tests (eg, CBC, serum biochemistry, BM examination). Presumably, the reason for the higher concentrations of certain APPs in chronic CME relates to the fact that tissue damage and inflammatory reaction in this phase is more severe compared with the acute phase because of the frequent occurrence of severe anemia, bleeding tendency, and bacterial septicemia.…”