Toxoplasma Hypervirulence in the Rat Model Parallels Human Infection and Is Modulated by the Toxo1 Locus

In conclusion, we have established that the F344 is a pertinent model in reproducing the pathophysiology of infected patients by hypervirulent T. gondii strains. We also provided evidence that virulence of Toxoplasma strains is highly modulated by the Toxo1 haplotype. Therefore, the rat model opens new avenues to discover new host-parasite interacting genes involved in the virulence of Toxoplasma gondii. Ethics Statement This study was carried out in accordance with the recommendations of Breeding and experimental procedures were carried out in accordance with national and international laws for laboratory animal welfare and experimentation (EEC Council Directive 2010/63/EU, September 2010). Experiments were performed under the supervision of C.L. (agreement 38 10 38) in the Plateforme de Haute Technologie Animale (PHTA) animal care facility (agreement C3851610006 delivered by the Direction Départementale de la Protection des Populations) and were approved by the ethics committee of the PHTA (ComEth) and by the French government (APAFIS#7617-2016111710364203 v3). Author Contributions CL designed and performed experiments, wrote article. AM and SK performed in vivo experiments. VC did the histological part. JB did the histological analysis. PC wrote article. M-FC-D designed experiments and wrote article. Conflict of Interest Statement The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could...
Source: Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology - Category: Microbiology Source Type: research