ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Relationship of Toxoplasma Gondii Exposure with Multiple Sclerosis
 
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Afyon Kocatepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey
 
 
Publication date: 2016-01-16
 
 
Corresponding author
Mehmet Yaman   

Afyon Kocatepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Neurology, 03200, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey
 
 
Eur J Gen Med 2016;13(1):58-63
 
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Objective:
Toxoplasma gondii infection is a very common parasitic disease in human. In Turkey, the rate of seropositivity was reported as 23.1% to 36%. Because of the high affinity of parasite into Central Nervous System (CNS), chronic toxoplasma infection has been found correlated with many neuropsychiatric disorders, including altered mental status, obsessive-compulsive disorder, cognitive impairment, epilepsy, headache and schizophrenia. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether T. gondii has any role in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) by measuring anti-T. gondii IgG antibodies.

Methods:
Fifty-two MS patients followed up and 45 controls with similar age and socioeconomic status were included in the study. Anti-T.gondii IgL antibodies of the patients and controls were studied in blood with micro-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique.

Results:
Of 52 MS patients included in the study, 37 had RRMS, 10 PPMS and 5 SPMS. Mean age of onset of the disease was 31.7±10.4 (min; 14 and max; 53). Twenty three of 52 (44.2%) cases with MS and 11 of 45 (24.4%) healthy controls were positive for anti-T.gondii IgG antibodies. There was a statistically significant difference between the rates of positivity between the MS patient group and control group (p=0.042).

Conclusion:
This study shows a relation of chronic T. Gondii infection with MS. According to this study, experienced T.gondii infection may be one of the several environmental risk factors for MS.

eISSN:2516-3507
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