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. 2022 Nov 11;226(10):1834-1841.
doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiac305.

Dynamic Immune Profile in French Toxoplasmosis Patients

Julie Denis  1   2 , Chloé Gommenginger  2   3 , Teodora Strechie  1   3 , Denis Filisetti  1   2   3 , Laetitia Beal  2   3 , Alexander W Pfaff  1   2 , Odile Villard  1   2   3
Affiliations

Dynamic Immune Profile in French Toxoplasmosis Patients

Julie Denis et al. J Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: Toxoplasma gondii infection is usually benign in Europe due to the strong predominance of type II strains. Few studies have been conducted to examine the immunological course of infection in humans and have yielded conflicting results, maybe influenced by heterogeneous parasite strains.

Methods: We measured 23 immune mediators in 39, 40, and 29 sera of French noninfected, acutely infected, and chronically infected immunocompetent pregnant women, respectively.

Results: Four different cytokine patterns were identified regarding their dynamics through infection phases. For 11 of the cytokines (IFN-β, IFN-γ, IL-4, IL5, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, IL-15, CXCL9, CCL2, and CSF2) the serum levels were significantly elevated during acute infection. The inflammatory mediators IL-1β, IL-17A, IL-18, TNF-α, and CSF3 remained unchanged during acute infection, while they were significantly lower in chronically infected compared to noninfected patients. As for the anti-inflammatory cytokines TGF-β and CCL5, their levels remained significantly elevated during chronic infection. We also observed a significant negative correlation of several cytokine concentrations with IgG levels, indicating a rapid decline of serum concentrations during the acute phase.

Conclusions: These results indicate an anti-inflammatory pattern in chronically infected patients in a type II dominated setting and demonstrate the highly dynamic immune situation during acute infection.

Keywords: Toxoplasma gondii; France; acute; chronic; cytokine profile; cytokines; pregnant; toxoplasmosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Potential conflicts of interest. All authors: No reported conflicts of interest. All authors have submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Conflicts that the editors consider relevant to the content of the manuscript have been disclosed.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Serum cytokine concentration of the noninfected patients and patients with acute or chronic toxoplasmosis: (A) cytokines showing significant upregulation only in patients in the acute phase of infection; (B) cytokines with significant downregulation in patients in the chronic phase; and (C) cytokines with significantly elevated levels in patients from both the acute and chronic groups compared to the noninfected patients. Pattern plots show the relative dynamics between the 3 subgroups for each pattern. Abbreviations: CCL, CC chemokine ligand; CSF, colony-stimulating factor; CXCL, C-X-C motif chemokine ligand; IFN, interferon; IL, interleukin; TGF, transforming growth factor; TNF, tumor necrosis factor.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Correlation profiles between Toxoplasma-specific IgG and cytokine levels in patients with an acute toxoplasmosis. Cytokines are displayed as in Figure 1: (A) cytokines showing significant upregulation only in the acute phase of infection; (B) cytokines with significant downregulation in the chronic phase; and (C) cytokines with significantly elevated levels in both the acute and chronic groups compared to the noninfected group. Correlations were analyzed by Spearman correlation test. * P < .05, ** P < .01, *** P < .001. Abbreviations: CCL, CC chemokine ligand; CSF, colony-stimulating factor; CXCL, C-X-C motif chemokine ligand; IFN, interferon; IgG, immunoglobulin G; IL, interleukin; ns, not significant; TGF, transforming growth factor; TNF, tumor necrosis factor.
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