Department of Philosophy and History of Science, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.
Applied Neurosciences and Brain Imaging, National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czech Republic.
Folia Parasitol (Praha). 2021 Feb 12;68:2021.005. doi: 10.14411/fp.2021.005.
Numerous recent studies show that vitamin D deficiency potentiates various chronic physical and psychiatric disorders and diseases. It has been shown that a similar range of disorders is also associated with latent infection with Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908). For instance, among cancer, diabetes and schizophrenia patients, we find a higher prevalence of both toxoplasmosis and vitamin D deficiency. Theoretically, therefore, vitamin D deficiency could be the missing link between toxoplasmosis and these disorders. We tested this hypothesis by searching for decreased vitamin D levels in the serum of subjects infected with T. gondii (furthermore called Toxoplasma-infected subjects) in two cross-sectional and one case-control study. Results of the first cross-sectional study (N = 72) suggest that Toxoplasma-infected neurasthenic patients have non-significantly lower levels of calcidiol than Toxoplasma-free patients (study A: P = 0.26 in women, P = 0.68 in men). However, two other studies (study B: N = 400; study C: N = 191) showed a non-significantly higher concentration of vitamin D in Toxoplasma-infected subjects than in Toxoplasma-free subjects both in men (study B: P = 0.70, study C: P = 0.55) and in women (study B: P = 0.64, study C: P = 0.12). Taken together, our preliminary results thus do not support the hypothesis that toxoplasmosis could be associated with vitamin D decrease.
许多最近的研究表明，维生素 D 缺乏会加剧各种慢性身体和精神疾病。已经表明，类似范围的疾病也与潜伏的刚地弓形虫感染有关（Nicolle et Manceaux，1908）。例如，在癌症、糖尿病和精神分裂症患者中，我们发现弓形虫病和维生素 D 缺乏症的患病率都更高。因此，从理论上讲，维生素 D 缺乏可能是弓形虫病和这些疾病之间缺失的联系。我们通过在两项横断面研究和一项病例对照研究中寻找感染刚地弓形虫的受试者（进一步称为弓形虫感染受试者）的血清中维生素 D 水平降低来检验这一假设。第一项横断面研究（N = 72）的结果表明，感染弓形虫的神经衰弱患者的 calcidiol 水平显著低于未感染弓形虫的患者（研究 A：女性 P = 0.26，男性 P = 0.68）。然而，另外两项研究（研究 B：N = 400；研究 C：N = 191）表明，感染弓形虫的受试者的维生素 D 浓度无论在男性（研究 B：P = 0.70，研究 C：P = 0.55）还是女性（研究 B：P = 0.64，研究 C：P = 0.12）中均显著高于未感染弓形虫的受试者。总的来说，我们的初步结果因此不支持弓形虫病与维生素 D 减少有关的假设。
