Flegr Jaroslav, Príplatova Lenka, Hampl Richard, Bicikovíá Marie, Ripova Daniela, Mohr Pavel
Division of Biology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic.
Institute of Endocrinology, Prague, Czech Republic.
Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2014;35(1):20-7.
Toxoplasma gondii, the protozoan parasite infecting about 30% population worldwide, is suspected to be the etiological agent of certain form of schizophrenia disease. Toxoplasma is known to change levels of certain neurotransmitters, cytokines and several hormones in both infected animals and humans. A common feature of toxoplasmosis and schizophrenia is a disorder of immune system.
Here we studied the levels of five neuro- and immunomodulatory steroids, selected hormones and lipids in sera of 173 schizophrenia patients.
Toxoplasma infected schizophrenia patients expressed only insignificantly lower concentration of neuro- and immunomodulatory DHEA metabolites. Infected women had higher concentration of glucose while infected men had higher concentration of cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. No significant effect of human cytomegalovirus infection on the concentration of the above parameters was observed. The difference in the concentration of DHEA metabolites faded with the decrease of the concentration of anti-Toxoplasma IgG antibodies (i.e. with the duration of Toxoplasma infection) while the difference in the concentration of cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol increased with the decrease of the concentration of anti-Toxoplasma IgG antibodies. The prevalence of toxoplasmosis in male (53.2%) but not female (29.8%) schizophrenia patients was unusually high in comparison with prevalence of toxoplasmosis in a general population.
Our results provided an explanation for seemingly decreasing prevalence of toxoplasmosis in schizophrenia patients observed in current studies (increased concerns about the rights of patients resulting in absence of non-cooperative Toxoplasma-positive patients in the study population) and suggest possible explanation for reported positive correlation between prevalence of toxoplasmosis and incidence of cardiovascular diseases (accelerated atherosclerotic development due to increased level of cholesterol and LDL in Toxoplasma infected humans).
弓形虫是一种原生动物寄生虫，全球约30%的人口受其感染，被怀疑是某些形式精神分裂症的病原体。已知弓形虫会改变受感染动物和人类体内某些神经递质、细胞因子和多种激素的水平。弓形虫病和精神分裂症的一个共同特征是免疫系统紊乱。
我们研究了173例精神分裂症患者血清中五种神经和免疫调节类固醇、选定激素和脂质的水平。
弓形虫感染的精神分裂症患者仅表现出神经和免疫调节脱氢表雄酮（DHEA）代谢物浓度略有降低。受感染女性的血糖浓度较高，而受感染男性的胆固醇和低密度脂蛋白胆固醇浓度较高。未观察到人类巨细胞病毒感染对上述参数浓度有显著影响。随着抗弓形虫IgG抗体浓度的降低（即随着弓形虫感染时间的延长），DHEA代谢物浓度的差异逐渐消失，而胆固醇和低密度脂蛋白胆固醇浓度的差异则随着抗弓形虫IgG抗体浓度的降低而增加。与普通人群中弓形虫病的患病率相比，男性（53.2%）而非女性（29.8%）精神分裂症患者中弓形虫病的患病率异常高。
我们的研究结果解释了当前研究中观察到的精神分裂症患者中弓形虫病患病率似乎下降的现象（对患者权利的关注度增加导致研究人群中没有不合作的弓形虫阳性患者），并为报道的弓形虫病患病率与心血管疾病发病率之间的正相关提供了可能的解释（由于弓形虫感染人类中胆固醇和低密度脂蛋白水平升高，加速了动脉粥样硬化的发展）。
