Global Health and Tropical Medicine (GHMT), Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical (IHMT), Universidade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA), 1349-008, Lisbon, Portugal; Medical Parasitology Unit, IHMT/NOVA, 1349-008, Lisbon, Portugal.
Global Health and Tropical Medicine (GHMT), Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical (IHMT), Universidade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA), 1349-008, Lisbon, Portugal; Medical Microbiology Unit, IHMT/NOVA, 1349-008, Lisbon, Portugal.
Vet Parasitol. 2021 Oct;298:109531. doi: 10.1016/j.vetpar.2021.109531. Epub 2021 Jul 15.
Zoonotic visceral leishmaniosis is a worldwide severe disease caused by Leishmania infantum, a protozoan that has phlebotomine sand flies as vectors and dogs as primary reservoir hosts. Over the last few decades, cats have been regarded as an indisputable piece within the ecological system in which L. infantum is maintained indefinitely. However, little is known about feline strains, including their phenotypic plasticity and infectivity. In this study, the phenotypic behaviour of seven L. infantum feline strains was compared to those of well-characterised counterparts isolated from two dogs and two humans in terms of growth profile, adaptive capacity under several stress conditions, susceptibility to antileishmanial drugs, and infectivity to host cells. Feline strains displayed a similar growth profile, survival capacity, and ability to infect feline, canine, and human monocyte-derived primary macrophages. Furthermore, multivariate cluster analysis suggested that most strains studied did not display distinctive phenotypic features. To our knowledge, this is the first study to analyse the phenotypic behaviour of feline L. infantum strains. This study brings new insights into the hypothetical role of cats as reservoir hosts of L. infantum since the parasites found in them are phenotypically identical to those of dogs and humans. However, further studies on the transmission dynamics should be encouraged to fully establish the status of cats in the maintenance of L. infantum foci.
人兽共患内脏利什曼病是一种由利什曼原虫引起的全球性严重疾病，这种原生动物通过白蛉沙蝇作为媒介，以狗作为主要储存宿主。在过去的几十年里，猫已被认为是利什曼原虫无限期维持的生态系统中不可或缺的一部分。然而，人们对猫利什曼原虫株知之甚少，包括其表型可塑性和感染性。在这项研究中，比较了来自两只狗和两个人的七种利什曼原虫猫株与经过充分表征的对照株在生长曲线、在几种应激条件下的适应能力、对抗利什曼原虫药物的敏感性以及对宿主细胞的感染性方面的表型行为。猫株表现出相似的生长曲线、生存能力和感染猫、犬、人单核细胞衍生原代巨噬细胞的能力。此外，多元聚类分析表明，大多数研究的菌株没有表现出独特的表型特征。据我们所知，这是首次分析猫利什曼原虫株的表型行为。这项研究为猫作为利什曼原虫的储存宿主的假设角色提供了新的见解，因为在猫体内发现的寄生虫与狗和人身上的寄生虫在表型上是相同的。然而，应该鼓励进一步的传播动力学研究，以充分确定猫在维持利什曼原虫病灶中的地位。
