ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT TREATMENT IMPROVES SYSTEMIC RESPONSE IN A MURINE MODEL OF CHRONIC TOXOPLASMOSIS

AMATO TADEO; ANDRÉS FLORENCIA; FENOY IGNACIO; MARTIN, VALENTINA; SANCHEZ, VANESA R

Congreso; XXXIII REUNION ANUAL SAP 2022; 2022

ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT TREATMENT IMPROVES SYSTEMIC RESPONSE IN A MURINE MODEL OF CHRONIC TOXOPLASMOSISAmato Tadeo *1, Andrés Florencia *1, Fenoy Ignacio1, Martín Valentina 1, Sánchez Vanesa 11Laboratorio de Inmunología Vacunas y Alergias (ITECA-CESyMA-ECyT-UNSAM), Buenos Aires, Argentina* Both authors contributed equally to this work.email contact: vrsanchez@unsam.edu.arCurrently, accumulated evidence links T. gondii chronic infection with different pathologies including neurological and cardiovascular implications. At the chronic stage of toxoplasmosis, tissue cysts are located mostly in SNC and muscles. There are no treatments able to eliminate these resistant structures or to reduce the adverse effects associated with the infection. We previously showed that environmental enrichment (EE) in chronic toxoplasmosis murine model improves cognition and behavior. Herein, we study the effect of EE as a non-invasive therapy against chronic toxoplasmosis and the effects at systemic level.METHODS: The EE therapy involves increasing the available space and the addition of novel elements in the habitat. C57BL/6 chronically infected treated (TE) or untreated (T) mice were observed daily, the weights were registered weekly and tissue damage enzymes in blood were evaluated at the end of the trial as well as parasite load in the brain.RESULTS: The results indicate that the EE treatment on infected mice improved the general appearance of animals and counteracted weight loss associated with infection (60 post infection days TE vs T; p=0,0161). Indeed, TE mice showed less amount of the damage enzymes LDH present in blood plasma than T mice (up to 20% lower; p=0,0133). Moreover, chronically infected treated mice showed a significantly better ratio heart weight vs total weight compared to the T group (p=0,0409). All these data evidence that EE treatment improves systemic response to deal with the chronic infection. Nevertheless, TE brain parasite load was similar to T group.CONCLUSIONS: This environmental enrichment therapy showed a positive impact at systemic level that added to the beneficial effects on behavior and learning shows its potential against chronic toxoplasmosis. This type of non-invasive therapy could be easy to incorporate into translational medicine approaches and helps to deal with the harmful effects of chronic toxoplasmosis.