Journal article
Clinical anemia predicts dermal parasitism and reservoir infectiousness during progressive visceral leishmaniosis
PLoS neglected tropical diseases, Vol.18(11), e0012363
11/08/2024
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0012363
PMCID: PMC11578447
PMID: 39514579
Abstract
Dogs represent the primary reservoir for Leishmania infantum human visceral leishmaniasis (VL) through phlebotomine sand flies. Public health initiatives targeting zoonotic VL commonly focus on dogs with severe clinical disease, often in renal failure, as they have previously been considered the most infectious to sand flies. However, more recent studies suggest that dogs with mild to moderate clinical disease may be more infectious than dogs with severe disease. The mechanisms of infectiousness from the skin and how this relates to transmissibility as clinical disease progresses is largely unknown. We evaluated dermal parasitism in dogs naturally infected with L . infantum across the four LeishVet clinical stages of disease. We establish the relationship between dermal parasitism, critical, frequently observed, clinical parameters such as anemia and creatinine, and infectiousness. Using RNAscope and confocal microscopy, we found notable variation in dermal parasitism between dogs, particularly within LeishVet II. Dogs with mild disease had significantly less dermal inflammation and parasitism than dogs with moderate or severe disease. We found significant correlations between anemia, dermal parasitism, and infectiousness (p = 0.0098, r = -0.4798; p = 0.0022, r = -0.8364). In contrast, we did not observe significant correlation between creatinine, a measure of renal function, and dermal parasitism or infectiousness. Host blood cell abnormalities, including anemia, correlate with infectiousness to sand flies. As these signs of disease often appear earlier in the course of disease, this indicates that classical measures of disease severity do not necessarily correlate with infectiousness or epidemiological importance. Public health initiatives attempting to break the zoonotic cycle of L . infantum infection should therefore focus on preventing transmission from infectious, anemic dogs, and not those with the most severe disease.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Clinical anemia predicts dermal parasitism and reservoir infectiousness during progressive visceral leishmaniosis
- Creators
- Max C Waugh - University of IowaKaren Cyndari - University of Iowa, Emergency MedicineTom Lynch - University of IowaSoomin Koh - University of IowaFerney Henao-Ceballos - University of IowaJacob J. Oleson - University of IowaPaul Kaye - Hull York Medical SchoolChristine A. Petersen - University of Iowa
- Contributors
- Johan Van Weyenbergh (Editor)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- PLoS neglected tropical diseases, Vol.18(11), e0012363
- DOI
- 10.1371/journal.pntd.0012363
- PMID
- 39514579
- PMCID
- PMC11578447
- NLM abbreviation
- PLoS Negl Trop Dis
- ISSN
- 1935-2735
- eISSN
- 1935-2735
- Publisher
- PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
- Grant note
- Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious DiseasesUniversity of Iowa Vice President for ResearchCarver College of MedicineRoy J. Carver Charitable TrustUniversity's Office of the Vice President for Research
The authors would like to acknowledge use of the University of Iowa Central Microscopy Research Facility, a core resource supported by the University of Iowa Vice President for Research, and the Carver College of Medicine. The CMRF's acquisition of the Zeiss LSM 980 microscope used in this research was made possible by a generous grant from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, with additional funding provided by the University's Office of the Vice President for Research. The authors would like to thank the University of Iowa Comparative Pathology Laboratory technicians for their invaluable help with sample embedding and sectioning; as well as the animal caretakers for their longstanding collaboration in support of this work.
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 11/08/2024
- Academic Unit
- Epidemiology; Emergency Medicine; Biostatistics; Otolaryngology
- Record Identifier
- 9984747060102771
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