Department of Sociology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
Department of Psychology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
Folia Parasitol (Praha). 2022 May 16;69:2022.011. doi: 10.14411/fp.2022.011.
The nematodes Toxocara canis (Werner, 1782) and Toxocara cati (Schrank, 1788) have been associated with worse human cognitive function in children and middle-aged adults. In this study, we sought to determine the association between Toxocara seropositivity and serointensity determined by detection of IgG antibodies against the Toxocara antigen recombinant Tc-CTL-1 and cognitive function in older adults, including approximately 1,350 observations from the 2013-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Mean fluorescence intensity was used to quantify IgG antibodies against the Toxocara recombinant Tc-CTL-1 antigen, and respondents were considered positive at values greater than 23.1. In adjusted models from sample sizes ranging from 1,274 to 1,288 depending on the individual cognitive task, we found that Toxocara seropositivity was associated with worse performance on the animal-fluency task (b = -1.245, 95% CI: -2.392 to -0.099, P< 0.05) and the digit-symbol coding task (b = -5.159, 95% CI: -8.337 to -1.980, P< 0.001). Toxocara serointensity assessed using log-transformed mean fluorescence intensity as a continuous variable was associated with worse performance on the digit-symbol coding task (b = -1.880, 95% CI: -2.976 to -0.783, P < 0.001). There were no significant associations with tasks assessing memory. Further, age modified the association between Toxocara and cognitive function, although sex, educational attainment, and income did not. These findings suggest that Toxocara might be associated with deficits in executive function and processing speed in older U.S. adults, although additional research is required to better describe cognitive function in older adults who are seropositive for Toxocara spp.
犬弓首蛔虫（Werner，1782）和猫弓首蛔虫（Schrank，1788）与儿童和中年成年人认知功能下降有关。在这项研究中，我们试图确定 Toxocara 血清阳性率与 Toxocara 抗原重组 Tc-CTL-1 抗体的血清强度之间的关联，以及认知功能在老年成年人中的关联，包括 2013-2014 年全国健康和营养调查中的大约 1350 个观察结果。平均荧光强度用于定量针对 Toxocara 重组 Tc-CTL-1 抗原的 IgG 抗体，并且将大于 23.1 的值视为阳性。在取决于个体认知任务的样本量为 1274 至 1288 之间的调整模型中，我们发现 Toxocara 血清阳性与动物流畅性任务（b = -1.245，95%CI：-2.392 至-0.099，P < 0.05）和数字符号编码任务（b = -5.159，95%CI：-8.337 至-1.980，P < 0.001）的表现更差有关。使用对数转换平均荧光强度作为连续变量评估的 Toxocara 血清强度与数字符号编码任务的表现更差有关（b = -1.880，95%CI：-2.976 至-0.783，P < 0.001）。与记忆评估任务没有显著关联。此外，年龄改变了 Toxocara 与认知功能之间的关联，尽管性别、教育程度和收入没有改变。这些发现表明，Toxocara 可能与美国老年成年人的执行功能和处理速度缺陷有关，但需要进一步研究来更好地描述 Toxocara 血清阳性的老年成年人的认知功能。
