1. The effect of normal human serum on the mouse trypanosome Trypanosoma musculi in vitro and in vivo.
- Author
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Zhang, Xuan, Hong, Xiao-Kun, Li, Su-Jin, Lai, De-Hua, Hide, Geoff, Lun, Zhao-Rong, and Wen, Yan-Zi
- Subjects
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TRYPANOSOMA , *ZOONOSES , *BLOOD serum analysis , *IMMUNOCOMPROMISED patients , *LYSIS - Abstract
Trypanosoma musculi, a common blood flagellate found in mice, is similar in morphology and life cycle to the rat trypanosome T. lewisi . Both species belong to the subgenus Herpetosoma , and as T. lewisi has recently been shown to be a zoonotic pathogen, there is concern that T. musculi could also be potentially infective to humans. To test this hypothesis, a well-established method, the normal human serum (NHS) incubation test, was carried out which distinguishes human and non-human infective trypanosomes. We found that T. musculi could grow in 0.31% NHS in vitro , and even kept their infectivity to mice after incubation with 10% NHS for 24 h. In in vivo experiments, T. musculi were only slightly affected by NHS injection, confirming that it was less sensitive to the NHS than T. b. brucei , but more sensitive than T. lewisi . This resistance probably does not rely on a restricted uptake of ApoL-1. Due to this partial resistance, we cannot definitively confirm that T. musculi has the potential for infection to humans. As resistance is less than that of T. lewisi , our data suggest that it is unlikely to be a zoonotic pathogen although we would advise caution in the case of immunocompromised people such as AIDS and cancer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
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