Migration and persistence of Toxocara canis and T. cati larvae in brains of paratenic hosts, including humans, may induce the disease neurotoxocarosis (NT). Along with various clinical symptoms, neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders have been described as a consequence of the disease. As most knowledge on NT is derived from only a few published clinical cases, information regarding underlying pathomechanisms and host’s response to Toxocara remain scarce. Therefore, it was aimed to characterize the general pathogenesis as well as the respective host's reaction on the transcriptional level in brains of T. canis- and T. cati C57BL/6J mice as a model for paratenic hosts.
Overall design
Transcriptional changes in cerebra as well as cerebella of T. canis- and T. cati-infected C57Bl/6J mice compared to the uninfected control mice were analysed at days 7, 14, 28, 70, 98 and 120 post infection. In each infection group, 3 animals were included for the evaluation.