GENETIC POLYMORPHISM OF TOXOPLASMA GONDII FROM RECENTLY INFECTED ABORTED EGYPTIAN WOMEN

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Molecular Biology, Medical Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Egypt.

2 Department of Medical Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt.

3 Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt.

4 Department of Medical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Aswan University, Egypt.

5 Department of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Sohag University, Egypt.

Abstract

Toxoplasmosis caused by Toxoplasma gondii is one of the most prevalent parasitic diseases in human beings. Human toxoplasmosis can be associated with serious clinical manifestations, particularly in developing fetus. The aim of the current study was to identify the possible lineage type of Toxoplasma gondii, molecularly detected in placental samples of women whose pregnancies were spontaneously terminated in the first trimester. Preliminary detection of Toxoplasma
genomic materials was done by a SYBR green qPCR technology. Subsequent identification of Toxoplasma strain was done for the positive samples using PCR- restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) at the SAG2 loci of T. gondii using restriction enzymes HhaI and Sau3AI. Out of 72 tested samples, Toxoplasma B1 gene was detected in 9 cases. Toxoplasma genotypes I and II in addition to unknown type were identified in 4, 3 and 2 cases respectively, while type III
was not detected in our samples, hence excluded as a leading cause of abortion in humans in our preliminary study. Nevertheless, it remains uncertain to what extent the genotype of the parasite directly contributes to the clinical severity of human toxoplasmosis. Certainly, advanced molecular techniques targeting different Toxoplasma strains are crucial for better understanding of human toxoplasmosis. For more elucidation, additional studies are recommended intended for genetic characterization of such serious parasitic infection using larger number of samples.

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