Kinetics of parasite burdens in blood and tissues during murine toxoplasmosis

Molecular Detection and Genotyping of Toxoplasma gondii from Clinical Samples

“…To increase the sensitivity of molecular diagnostics of toxoplasmosis nested PCR was introduced, although in recent years real-time PCR has shown a significantly higher sensitivity as well as specificity (Jauregui et al, 2001;Reischl et al, 2003;Contini et al, 2005;Calderaro et al, 2006;Edvinsson et al, 2006). Real-time PCR detection also has the capability of quantification of T. gondii in biological samples, which has found wide application in monitoring the kinetics and outcome of infection in patients undergoing therapy, as well as in experimental models (Lin et al, 2000;Jauregui et al, 2001;Contini et al, 2005;Djurković-Djaković et al, 2012).…”

Differential Gamma Interferon- and Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha-Driven Cytokine Response Distinguishes Acute Infection of a Metatherian Host with Toxoplasma gondii and Neospora caninum

“…The parasite burden in host tissue is an important element of disease development in eutherian models (3,10,53,54). Our findings suggest that in the dunnart model, N. caninum NC-Nowra disseminates better, with a higher capacity for growth and/or better evasion of the host immune response than T. gondii TgAuDg1.…”

“…This is particularly true for dasyurid species, where the brain and spinal cord are reported to be the most likely tissues to contain lesions and parasites in infected animals (56,57). Experimental infections in mice have also shown that the brain is parasitized early in infection, irrespective of the method of inoculation (53), and that encephalitis and tissues cysts commonly appear by the second week of infection (58). It is possible that there is a diminished capacity of the TgAuDg1 strain to cross the blood-brain barrier in dunnarts or that there was irregular distribution of parasites in the brain, such that sampling was not accurately reflective of infection rates.…”

Study of Tissue Orientation and Parasite Load in Various Tissues and Blood in an Experimental Mouse Model of Acute Toxoplasmosis

“…All samples were infected a day after intraperitoneal inoculation (24 hours postinfection) with 1 × 106 parasites/mL of tachyzoites of Toxoplasma RH strain. The infection was positive, and the samples showed the highest parasite burden in the blood and the lowest DNA copy number in the brain (15). Moreover, in a study by Dadimoghaddam et al on tissue tropism and parasite burden of T. gondii in mice, the highest parasite burden was reported in the kidney, heart, and liver tissues and the kidney and spleen on the last day (a day before death) (8).…”

“…Seventy-two hours after infection, tachyzoites were aspirated from the peritoneal cavity (15), and the parasite suspension was washed twice with sterile phosphate-buffered saline (PBS; pH, 7.4), containing 100 IU/mL of penicillin and 100 µg/mL of streptomycin. The number of parasites was identified as 1 × 10 4 /mL via counting by a hemocytometer under the microscope light (× 400 magnification) (16).…”