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

AMATO TADEO; ANDRÉS FLORENCIA; FENOY IGNACIO; MARTÍN VALENTINA; SÁNCHEZ VANESA

CABA

Congreso; xxxiii reunion anual sap 2022; 2022

Currently, accumulated evidence links T. gondii chronic infection with differentpathologies including neurological and cardiovascular implications. At the chronic stage oftoxoplasmosis, tissue cysts are located mostly in SNC and muscles. There are notreatments able to eliminate these resistant structures or to reduce the adverse effectsassociated with the infection. We previously showed that environmental enrichment (EE) inchronic toxoplasmosis murine model improves cognition and behavior. Herein, we study theeffect of EE as a non-invasive therapy against chronic toxoplasmosis and the effects atsystemic level.METHODS: The EE therapy involves increasing the available space and the additionof 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 enzymesin 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 thegeneral appearance of animals and counteracted weight loss associated with infection (60post infection days TE vs T; p=0,0161). Indeed, TE mice showed less amount of the damageenzymes 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 totalweight compared to the T group (p=0,0409). All these data evidence that EE treatmentimproves systemic response to deal with the chronic infection. Nevertheless, TE brainparasite load was similar to T group.CONCLUSIONS: This environmental enrichment therapy showed a positive impact atsystemic level that added to the beneficial effects on behavior and learning shows itspotential against chronic toxoplasmosis. This type of non-invasive therapy could be easy toincorporate into translational medicine approaches and helps to deal with the harmful effectsof chronic toxoplasmosis.