[Chlamydophila pneumoniae: from its proteomics to arteriosclerosis]

Chlamydia pneumoniae sero-prevalence in Moroccan patients with cardiovascular diseases

BACKGROUND

Chlamydia pneumoniae is a pathogen associated with human respiratory tract infection, its viable presence in atherosclerotic plaques is also assumed to play significant function in cardiac diseases. Our study's main objective is to evaluate Chlamydia pneumoniae sero-prevalence in Moroccan patients with cardiovascular diseases using and comparing two serological methods.

METHODS

Two hundred eighteen patients were enrolled; serums were tested by microimmunofluorescence to explore the sero-prevalence. Simultaneously 74 serums were analyzed by both immunoblot and micro-immunofluorescence to evaluate recombinant proteins diagnosis value.

RESULTS

MIF results revealed 81% male and 84.5% female positive cases. The comparative study among 74 patients showed 78% men and 89% women positive cases by immunoblot, whereas MIF showed respectively 80% and 72%, a significant concordance between these methods was revealed. However, this comparison showed also two types of discrepancies, which may be related to difficulties in antigens detection by micro-immunofluorescence resulting from their structure complexity, or the antibodies reactivity with species' common antigens.

CONCLUSIONS

The study revealed a high sero-prevalence of Chlamydia pneumoniae in the studied population, a big interest of recombinant protein was also revealed in the diagnosis accuracy. We suggest therefore using immunoblot for diagnosis confirmation because it provides additional useful information.

Different presence of Chlamydia pneumoniae, herpes simplex virus type 1, human herpes virus 6, and Toxoplasma gondii in schizophrenia: meta-analysis and analytical study

In the present study we have performed both a meta-analysis and an analytical study exploring the presence of Chlamydia pneumoniae, herpes simplex virus type 1, human herpes virus 6, and Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in a sample of 143 schizophrenic patients and 143 control subjects. The meta-analysis was performed on papers published up to April 2014. The presence of serum immunoglobulin G and immunoglobulin A was performed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test. The detection of microbial DNA in total peripheral blood was performed by nested polymerase chain reaction. The meta-analysis showed that: 1) C. pneumoniae DNA in blood and brain are more common in schizophrenic patients; 2) there is association with parasitism by T. gondii, despite the existence of publication bias; and 3) herpes viruses were not more common in schizophrenic patients. In our sample only anti-Toxoplasma immunoglobulin G was more prevalent and may be a risk factor related to schizophrenia, with potential value for prevention.