The seroprevalence of antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii among children with autism

Esnafoğlu, Erman; Demir, Esra; Çetinkol, Yeliz; Calgin, Mustafa Kerem; Erdil, Abdullah; Ertürk, Emine Yurdakul; Dağlı, Abdullah

doi:10.5350/dajpn2017300404

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…In the present study, the incidence of toxoplasmosis among autistic children was 24.4% (11 participants) when compared to 22.2% (10 participants) in the control children, and the difference was not statistically significant. This finding is consistent with previous reports of a non-significant correlation between autism and Toxoplasma infection in Iran (Afsharpaiman et al 2014 ), Turkey (Esnafoglu et al 2017 ), and Egypt (Gouda and Shafey 2020 ). In contrast, other research demonstrated a significant relationship between autism and Toxoplasma infection in Egypt (Prandota et al 2015 ), Saudi Arabia (AL Malki et al 2021 ), and Iraq (Bazzaz and Jameel 2022 ), which was also supported by a meta-analysis reported from different countries (Nayeri et al 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…However, there was a higher significant Toxoplasma seropositivity in boys than in girls in both the autistic and control groups, which was similar to sex distribution in past studies (Prandota et al 2015 ; Esnafoglu et al 2017 ). However, Gouda and Shafey ( 2020 ) have reported that autistic girls were more affected by Toxoplasma than boys, which can be explained by several reasons.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

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Toxoplasmosis and cytomegalovirus infection and their role in Egyptian autistic children

Hassan

Zekry²,

Heikal³

et al. 2023

Parasitol Res

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Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a significantly increased incidence rate across the world over the past few years. Toxoplasmosis and cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection are globally prevalent and have been associated with diverse neurological and psychiatric disorders. A few studies have demonstrated the role of toxoplasmosis and CMV as potential etiological factors for autism. Accordingly, this study was performed to estimate the relationship between toxoplasmosis and CMV infection in children with autism as well as to assess their impact on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) score. A total of 45 autistic children (6 girls, 39 boys) and 45 (21 girls, 24 boys) healthy control children were enrolled in our study. Their blood samples were collected and tested for the presence of Toxoplasma and CMV (IgG and IgM) antibodies and DNA by ELISA and real-time PCR (RT-PCR), respectively. Toxoplasmosis was detected in 11 (24.4%) autistic children through the ELISA [10 (22.2%) IgG + /IgM − and 1 (2.2%) IgG + /IgM +]; however, RT-PCR assay recorded only 1 positive case (2.2%), while it was detected in 10 (22.2%) control children through ELISA [9 (20%) IgG + /IgM − and 1 (2.2%) IgG + /IgM +] and 1 (2.2%) by RT-PCR. On the other hand, CMV infection was detected in all autistic children with 44 (97.8%) testing positive by ELISA [24 (53.3%) IgG + /IgM − , 18 (40%) IgG + /IgM + and 2 (4.4%) IgG − /IgM +] and 25 (55.6%) testing positive by RT-PCR assay. In addition, ELISA assay recorded 43 (95.6%) [19 (42.2%) IgG + /IgM + and 22 (48.9%) IgG + /IgM − and 2 (4.4%) IgG-/IgM +] and RT-PCR recorded 21 (46.7%) positive samples in control children with CMV. No significant difference was noted between autistic and control children for the overall prevalence of Toxoplasma or/and CMV infection. Similarly, the CARS score indicated a non-significant difference with Toxoplasma or/and CMV infection. Our data does not show an association between autism and toxoplasmosis or/and CMV infection. Nevertheless, considering that autistic children are at a high risk of contracting these infections, further studies with a larger sample size are recommended.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Toxoplasmosis and cytomegalovirus infection and their role in Egyptian autistic children

Hassan

Zekry²,

Heikal³

et al. 2023

Parasitol Res

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“…In our study, antibodies to Toxoplasma IgM was negative in all studied children. Esnafoglu et al 22 , in a similar result, diagnosed three Autism Spectrum Disorder children out of 102 (2.9%) as being associated with anti-Toxoplasma IgG, and one control child (2%) out of 51 children, all participants in their study were IgM negative, this result assumes that the role of primary infection or reactive toxoplasmosis in autism pathogenesis don't exist.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Detection of Anti Toxoplasma antibodies in children with autism in Shebin Al-Kom district Menoufia Governorate, Egypt

Gouda

Shafey

2020

Egyptian Journal of Medical Microbiology

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Background; Autism spectrum disorders (ASD), are a range of mental disorders of neurodevelopmental type. More than three billion human hosts are estimated to be affected by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which is intracellular pathogen with a particular preference for the central nervous system (CNS). Accumulating evidence suggests that latent chronic toxoplasmosis contributes to triggering and progression of many neurological and psychiatric disorders, however the link and prevalence in ASD is not clear. Objective; The present study aimed to detect the relationship between Toxoplasma gondii infection in children suffering from autism disorder. Method: A case-controlled study was conducted on 80 children (40 cases and 40 controls), aged from 4-10 years. They were tested for the presence of anti-T. gondii. antibodies by ELISA. Analysis of data was performed using the Chi-square test and Fisher's exact test. Results; No significant differences were detected between healthy (5.0%) and diseased children regarding presence of anti-toxoplasmosis antibodies (17.5%). However a significant difference was observed between boys and girls concerning age and seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis, the percent of autistic boys with toxoplasmosis was 9.1%, while the infection was represented in 57.1% of girls with autism. History of acquiring infection with toxoplasmosis during pregnancy was positive in 27.5% of diseased children compared to control children where the percent was 12.5%, with no statistically significant result. Considering residence, there were no significant differences in the seroprevalence of T. gondii IgG among urban and rural regions (P-value =1.0). Conclusion: From our study, we concluded that despite the absence of significant difference between healthy and diseased children in regard to toxoplasmosis, autistic children were highly risky for catching toxoplasmosis infection which need more research in this era.

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“…These parasites attack nerve cells and cause various impairments and neurological and behavioral disorders by following various mechanisms [43]. Autism spectrum disorder is a neurobehavioral disorder [44] that increases the risk of dealing with pollutants that cause the transmission of many diseases, including toxoplasma, on the other hand, Toxoplasma and the resulting increased secretion of many neurogenic hormones exacerbate autism [45]. Blood transfusion is one of the common methods of toxoplasma transmission [46], so infection with the parasite is associated with blood diseases such as thalassemia [47] and blood cancers [48].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in children: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

A-Ardi¹

2022

MJPS

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Toxoplasma infection during childhood may cause severe effects for children and the next offspring if does not treat. Here, we initiated a systematic review to estimate the global prevalence of Toxoplasmosis in Iraqi children. From all databases for articles published between January 2000 and March 2021 and included studies that related the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in children (1 day – 15 years), the overall prevalence rate of Toxoplasmosis was evaluated with a 95% CI in globally and WHO regions. This result was performed as linear regression analyses to detect associations of the prevalence of Toxoplasmosis with the overall population number. As a result, 63 articles included 29342 children from 18 countries incorporated in the systematic analysis. The total globally prevalence rate of Toxoplasma in children was 0.2% (95% CI: 0.195 – 0.204 %). The prevalence rate was so highest in the Africa region 0.28 % (95%CI: 0.5- 0.55%) and lowest in the South America and USA regions 0.166% (95% CI: 0.01 – 0.33%). The prevalence rate among children is very high when compared with other groups of the population. These results require further examination and investigation of the parasite among children to reduce new infections occurrence or prevent complications of the disease.

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The seroprevalence of antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii among children with autism

Cited by 7 publications

References 35 publications

Toxoplasmosis and cytomegalovirus infection and their role in Egyptian autistic children

Toxoplasmosis and cytomegalovirus infection and their role in Egyptian autistic children

Detection of Anti Toxoplasma antibodies in children with autism in Shebin Al-Kom district Menoufia Governorate, Egypt

Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in children: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

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