Translational Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Risskov, Denmark.
Translational Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Risskov, Denmark.
J Psychiatr Res. 2019 Mar;110:45-50. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2018.12.016. Epub 2018 Dec 17.
Toxoplasma gondii (TOX) is a common parasite which infects approximately one third of the human population. In recent years, it has been suggested that latent toxoplasmosis may be a risk factor for the development of mental disorders, particularly schizophrenia and anxiety. With regards to depression the results have been varied. The main objective of this study was to examine subpopulations from the Danish PRISME and GENDEP populations for TOX IgG antibodies. These consisted of: a group with symptoms of anxiety, a group suffering from burnout syndrome, as well as two different subpopulations with depression of differing severity. The secondary objective of this study was to examine whether tryptophan metabolism was altered in TOX-positive subjects within each subpopulation. Our results show that the anxiety and burnout populations were more likely to be TOX IgG seropositive. Furthermore, we find that the moderate-severe but not mild-moderate depressive subpopulation were associated with TOX seropositivety, suggesting a possible role of symptom severity. Additionally, we found that TOX positive subjects in the anxiety and burnout subpopulations had altered tryptophan metabolism. This relationship did not exist in the mild-moderate depressive subpopulation. These results suggest that TOX seropositivity may be related to anxiety, burnout and potentially to severity of depression. We furthermore show that the psychiatric symptoms could be associated with an altered tryptophan metabolism.
刚地弓形虫（TOX）是一种常见的寄生虫，大约感染了三分之一的人类人口。近年来，有人提出潜伏性弓形体病可能是精神障碍，特别是精神分裂症和焦虑症发展的一个危险因素。至于抑郁症，结果则各不相同。本研究的主要目的是检查丹麦 PRISME 和 GENDEP 人群的亚群是否存在 TOX IgG 抗体。这些亚群包括：有焦虑症状的一组、患有 burnout 综合征的一组，以及两组不同严重程度的抑郁症亚群。本研究的次要目的是检查在每个亚群中，TOX 阳性者的色氨酸代谢是否发生改变。我们的结果表明，焦虑症和 burnout 人群更有可能是 TOX IgG 血清阳性。此外，我们发现中重度而非轻度中度抑郁亚群与 TOX 血清阳性相关，这表明症状严重程度可能起作用。此外，我们发现焦虑和 burnout 亚群中的 TOX 阳性者色氨酸代谢发生改变。这种关系在轻度中度抑郁亚群中并不存在。这些结果表明，TOX 血清阳性可能与焦虑、倦怠以及可能与抑郁严重程度有关。我们还表明，精神科症状可能与色氨酸代谢改变有关。
