Wysmołek Magdalena E, Dobrzyński Artur, Długosz Ewa, Czopowicz Michał, Wiśniewski Marcin, Jurka Piotr, Klockiewicz Maciej
Division of Parasitology, Department of Preclinical Sciences, Institute of Veterinary Medicine, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SGGW, Warsaw, Poland.
Department of Small Animal Diseases and Clinic, Institute of Veterinary Medicine, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SGGW, Warsaw, Poland.
Front Vet Sci. 2020 Sep 10;7:590. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2020.00590. eCollection 2020.
Subcutaneous dirofilariosis is a zoonotic disease emerging throughout Europe caused by the filarial nematode . Despite its increasing prevalence, there is a large gap in knowledge of the impact of the parasite on the host. Currently classified as being non-pathogenic, recent evidence suggests that skin dirofilariosis is associated with dermatological conditions including concomitant pruritus, neoplastic processes, inflammation, and even blindness in dogs and humans. The aim of this study was to determine if natural canine infection leads to biological changes in the canine host. In a real-life veterinary clinic setting, animals are often presented to clinicians for unrelated issues, and is incidentally identified during inspection. As such, we compared hematological and biochemical parameters of 218 uninfected and 197 dogs naturally infected with . Interestingly, animals infected with had lower numbers of lymphocytes ( < 0.001), red blood cells ( < 0.001), and thrombocytes ( = 0.025), decreased hematocrit ( < 0.001), and increased alkaline phosphatase ( = 0.016) and creatinine activity ( = 0.023) compared to uninfected dogs. We further selected a subpopulation of 214 dogs having hematological and biochemical results within normal reference ranges to evaluate the effect of infections in seemingly healthy dogs. Among these patients, 93 dogs infected with had lower numbers of lymphocytes ( = 0.031), red blood cells ( = 0.025), and hematocrit ( = 0.002), higher glucose levels ( = 0.023), and border line elevated alkaline phosphatase levels ( = 0.054) compared to 121 uninfected animals. Despite being categorized as asymptomatic, we have observed hematological and biochemical changes associated with infections in dogs, and our data suggest that dirofilariosis may induce a state of chronic stress. These results link the presence of skin dirofilariosis to biological changes in the canine host, suggesting a mechanism for pathogenicity and shedding new light on the host-parasite relationship.
皮下恶丝虫病是一种在欧洲各地出现的人畜共患病，由丝虫线虫引起。尽管其患病率不断上升，但关于该寄生虫对宿主影响的认识仍存在很大差距。目前被归类为非致病性疾病，但最近的证据表明，皮肤恶丝虫病与皮肤病学状况有关，包括伴随的瘙痒、肿瘤形成过程、炎症，甚至在犬类和人类中导致失明。本研究的目的是确定犬自然感染是否会导致犬宿主发生生物学变化。在实际的兽医临床环境中，动物常常因无关问题被带到临床医生处，在检查过程中偶然被发现感染。因此，我们比较了218只未感染和197只自然感染恶丝虫的犬的血液学和生化参数。有趣的是，与未感染的犬相比，感染恶丝虫的动物淋巴细胞数量更少（P<0.001）、红细胞数量更少（P<0.001）、血小板数量更少（P = 0.025），血细胞比容降低（P<0.001），碱性磷酸酶活性增加（P = 0.016）和肌酐活性增加（P = 0.023）。我们进一步选择了214只血液学和生化结果在正常参考范围内的犬亚群，以评估看似健康的犬感染恶丝虫的影响。在这些患者中，与121只未感染的动物相比，93只感染恶丝虫的犬淋巴细胞数量更少（P = 0.031）、红细胞数量更少（P = 0.025）、血细胞比容更低（P = 0.002），血糖水平更高（P = 0.023），碱性磷酸酶水平处于临界升高状态（P = 0.054）。尽管被归类为无症状，但我们观察到犬感染恶丝虫与血液学和生化变化有关，我们的数据表明恶丝虫病可能会诱发慢性应激状态。这些结果将皮肤恶丝虫病的存在与犬宿主的生物学变化联系起来，提示了一种致病机制，并为宿主 - 寄生虫关系提供了新的线索。
