Test combination to detect latent Leishmania infection: A prevalence study in a newly endemic area for L. infantum, northeastern Italy.
Background Most people infected with Leishmania remain asymptomatic, which is a common element that may promote the resurgence of clinically evident leishmaniasis in individuals with impaired cell-mediated immune responses. Unfortunately, there is no universally accepted assay to identify asymptomat...
Published in: | PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2022
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010676 https://doaj.org/article/f0d35afa624a464bb6f7bc5920566433 |
id |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:f0d35afa624a464bb6f7bc5920566433 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:f0d35afa624a464bb6f7bc5920566433 2023-05-15T15:11:27+02:00 Test combination to detect latent Leishmania infection: A prevalence study in a newly endemic area for L. infantum, northeastern Italy. Alessandra Mistral De Pascali Renato Todeschini Simone Baiocchi Margherita Ortalli Luciano Attard Ana Victoria Ibarra-Meneses Eugenia Carrillo Stefania Varani 2022-08-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010676 https://doaj.org/article/f0d35afa624a464bb6f7bc5920566433 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010676 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0010676 https://doaj.org/article/f0d35afa624a464bb6f7bc5920566433 PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 16, Iss 8, p e0010676 (2022) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010676 2022-12-30T20:35:06Z Background Most people infected with Leishmania remain asymptomatic, which is a common element that may promote the resurgence of clinically evident leishmaniasis in individuals with impaired cell-mediated immune responses. Unfortunately, there is no universally accepted assay to identify asymptomatic infection. This cross-sectional study focuses on the employment of three methods targeting different features of the parasitic infection to be used in combination for the screening of latent leishmaniasis in a newly endemic area of northeastern Italy. Methodology/principal findings The selected methods included highly sensitive Real-Time PCR for detection of parasitic kinetoplast (k)DNA in peripheral blood, Western Blot (WB) for detection of specific IgG, and Whole Blood stimulation Assay (WBA) to evaluate the anti-leishmanial T-cell response by quantifying the production of IL-2 after stimulation of patients' blood with Leishmania specific antigens. Among 145 individuals living in a municipality of the Bologna province, northeastern Italy, recruited and screened for Leishmania infection, 23 subjects tested positive (15.9%) to one or more tests. Positive serology was the most common marker of latent leishmaniasis (15/145, 10%), followed by the detection of specific cell-mediated response (12/145, 8%), while only few individuals (6/145, 4%) harbored parasitic DNA in the blood. Conclusions/significance Combining different tests substantially increased the yield of positivity in detecting latent Leishmania infection. The test combination that we employed in this study appears to be effective to accurately identify latent leishmaniasis in an endemic area. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 16 8 e0010676 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
spellingShingle |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Alessandra Mistral De Pascali Renato Todeschini Simone Baiocchi Margherita Ortalli Luciano Attard Ana Victoria Ibarra-Meneses Eugenia Carrillo Stefania Varani Test combination to detect latent Leishmania infection: A prevalence study in a newly endemic area for L. infantum, northeastern Italy. |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
Background Most people infected with Leishmania remain asymptomatic, which is a common element that may promote the resurgence of clinically evident leishmaniasis in individuals with impaired cell-mediated immune responses. Unfortunately, there is no universally accepted assay to identify asymptomatic infection. This cross-sectional study focuses on the employment of three methods targeting different features of the parasitic infection to be used in combination for the screening of latent leishmaniasis in a newly endemic area of northeastern Italy. Methodology/principal findings The selected methods included highly sensitive Real-Time PCR for detection of parasitic kinetoplast (k)DNA in peripheral blood, Western Blot (WB) for detection of specific IgG, and Whole Blood stimulation Assay (WBA) to evaluate the anti-leishmanial T-cell response by quantifying the production of IL-2 after stimulation of patients' blood with Leishmania specific antigens. Among 145 individuals living in a municipality of the Bologna province, northeastern Italy, recruited and screened for Leishmania infection, 23 subjects tested positive (15.9%) to one or more tests. Positive serology was the most common marker of latent leishmaniasis (15/145, 10%), followed by the detection of specific cell-mediated response (12/145, 8%), while only few individuals (6/145, 4%) harbored parasitic DNA in the blood. Conclusions/significance Combining different tests substantially increased the yield of positivity in detecting latent Leishmania infection. The test combination that we employed in this study appears to be effective to accurately identify latent leishmaniasis in an endemic area. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Alessandra Mistral De Pascali Renato Todeschini Simone Baiocchi Margherita Ortalli Luciano Attard Ana Victoria Ibarra-Meneses Eugenia Carrillo Stefania Varani |
author_facet |
Alessandra Mistral De Pascali Renato Todeschini Simone Baiocchi Margherita Ortalli Luciano Attard Ana Victoria Ibarra-Meneses Eugenia Carrillo Stefania Varani |
author_sort |
Alessandra Mistral De Pascali |
title |
Test combination to detect latent Leishmania infection: A prevalence study in a newly endemic area for L. infantum, northeastern Italy. |
title_short |
Test combination to detect latent Leishmania infection: A prevalence study in a newly endemic area for L. infantum, northeastern Italy. |
title_full |
Test combination to detect latent Leishmania infection: A prevalence study in a newly endemic area for L. infantum, northeastern Italy. |
title_fullStr |
Test combination to detect latent Leishmania infection: A prevalence study in a newly endemic area for L. infantum, northeastern Italy. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Test combination to detect latent Leishmania infection: A prevalence study in a newly endemic area for L. infantum, northeastern Italy. |
title_sort |
test combination to detect latent leishmania infection: a prevalence study in a newly endemic area for l. infantum, northeastern italy. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010676 https://doaj.org/article/f0d35afa624a464bb6f7bc5920566433 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 16, Iss 8, p e0010676 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010676 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0010676 https://doaj.org/article/f0d35afa624a464bb6f7bc5920566433 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010676 |
container_title |
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
e0010676 |
_version_ |
1766342298018250752 |