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Dawant T, Wang W, Spriggs M, Magela de Faria Junior G, Horton L, Szafranski NM, Waap H, Jokelainen P, Gerhold RW, Su C. Isolation of Toxoplasma gondii in cell culture: an alternative to bioassay. Int J Parasitol 2024; 54:131-137. [PMID: 38097034 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2023.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2023] [Revised: 10/24/2023] [Accepted: 12/06/2023] [Indexed: 01/21/2024]
Abstract
Toxoplasma gondii is an apicomplexan protozoan parasite that can infect mammals and birds. The infection can cause acute toxoplasmosis and death in susceptible hosts. Bioassay using cats and mice has been the standard for the isolation of T. gondii from infected hosts for the past several decades. However, bioassay is labor-intensive, expensive, and involves using laboratory animals. To search alternative approaches and o work towards replacement of animal experiments, we summarized the key literature and conducted four experiments to isolate T. gondii in vitro by cell culture. A few heart tissue samples from animals with the highest antibody titers in a given collection were used for T. gondii isolation. These experiments included samples from five out of 51 wild ducks, four of 46 wild turkeys, six of 24 white-tailed deer, as well as from six kangaroos that had died with acute toxoplasmosis in a zoo. These experiments resulted in three isolates from five chronically infected wild ducks (60%), four isolates from four chronically infected wild turkeys (100%), one isolate from six chronically infected white-tailed deer (17%), and four isolates from six kangaroos with acute toxoplasmosis (67%). In addition, five isolates from the five chronically infected wild ducks were obtained by bioassay in mice, showing a 100% success rate, which is higher than the 60% rate by direct cell culture. These T. gondii isolates were successfully propagated in human foreskin fibroblast (HFF) or Vero cells, and genotyped by multilocus PCR-RFLP markers. The results showed that it is practical to isolate T. gondii directly in cell culture. Although the cell culture approach may not be as sensitive as the bioassay, it does provide an alternative that is simple, cost-effective, ethically more acceptable, and less time-sensitive to isolate T. gondii. In this paper we propose a procedure that may be applied and further optimized for isolation of T. gondii.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tania Dawant
- Department of Biomedical and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN. USA
| | - Wei Wang
- Department of Microbiology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
| | - Maria Spriggs
- SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, Busch Gardens, 3605 E. Bougainvillea Avenue, Tampa, Florida 33612, USA
| | | | - Laura Horton
- Department of Biomedical and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN. USA
| | - Nicole M Szafranski
- Department of Biomedical and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN. USA
| | - Helga Waap
- Laboratório de Parasitologia, Unidade Estratégica de Investigação e Serviços, de Produção e Saúde Anima (UEISPSA), Portugal; Animal Behaviour and Welfare Laboratory, Centre of Interdisciplinary Research in Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Lisbon University, Lisbon, Portugal; Associate Laboratory for Animal and Veterinary Sciences (AL4AnimalS), Lisbon, Portugal; Centre for Infectious Disease Control-Zoonoses and Environmental Microbiology, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands
| | - Pikka Jokelainen
- Infectious Disease Preparedness, Statens Serum Institut, Artillerivej 5, 2300 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Richard W Gerhold
- Department of Biomedical and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN. USA
| | - Chunlei Su
- Department of Microbiology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.
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Strules J, Dawant T, Riese K, Gerhold R, Brown J, Olfenbuttel C, DePerno CS, Hunt BJ, von Dohlen AR. USE OF A POINT OF CARE TEST TO DETERMINE THE PREVALENCE OF ANTIBODIES TO TOXOPLASMA GONDII IN BLACK BEARS FROM NORTH CAROLINA AND PENNSYLVANIA. J Parasitol 2023; 109:221-224. [PMID: 37327396 DOI: 10.1645/22-72] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Toxoplasma gondii is an important protozoan parasite of humans and animals throughout the world. Black bears are among the animals with the highest seroprevalence of T. gondii in the United States. A rapid point of care (POC) test is commercially available to detect antibodies to T. gondii in humans. We evaluated the utility of the POC test to detect anti-T. gondii antibodies in 100 wild black bears from North Carolina (n = 50) and Pennsylvania (n = 50). In a blind study, sera were tested by the POC test, and results were compared to the modified agglutination test (MAT). Overall, anti-T. gondii antibodies were detected in 76% (76/100) black bears by both MAT and POC tests. One false positive and one false negative result in the POC test were obtained in bears from Pennsylvania. The sensitivity and specificity of the POC test were both 99% when compared to the MAT. Results from our study indicate the POC test could be a useful screening tool for serological surveillance of T. gondii in black bears.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer Strules
- Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606
| | - Tania Dawant
- Department of Biomedical and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996
| | - Katie Riese
- Department of Biomedical and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996
| | - Richard Gerhold
- Department of Biomedical and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996
| | - Justin Brown
- Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802
| | | | - Christopher S DePerno
- Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606
| | - Brian J Hunt
- Department of Computer Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics, College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, North Carolina 28216
| | - Alexa Rosypal von Dohlen
- Department of Natural and Behavioral Sciences, College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, North Carolina 28216
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