Etiology of Parkinson's disease: Toxoplasma parasite as a model

Abstract

Parkinson's disease is a chronic neuropsychiatric disease that affects the central nervous system, the main symptoms of which are tremors, the difficulty of movement and balance problems, as well as non-motor symptoms such as anxiety and depression. It is believed to be a multi-cause disease. Latent toxoplasmosis occurs when cystic or bradyzoite phases of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii reside into the brain cells and other tissues in host body, where the parasite begins to manipulate the behavior of the host and can cause neurological and psychological symptoms in some infected individuals. Therefore, this parasite is a dangerous source of many neurological diseases such as schizophrenia and dementia. A total of 80 samples were collected, 35 samples for individuals with Parkinson's (19 males and 16 females) and 45 samples for healthy control (33 males and 12 females). IgG antibodies, which had been detected against toxoplasma parasite indicate presence of chronic or latent infection. This had been done by using the ELISA test during the period from November 2017 to March 2018. The collected samples of the control group included volunteer donors from Najaf province, while samples with Parkinson's disease were collected from various provinces located in the middle of Iraq (Najaf, Babylon and Baghdad). The results showed that the percentage of chronic infection (Positive IgG antibodies) was significantly higher (P <0.05) in patients with Parkinson's (65.71%) than in healthy control (37.77%) by using Chi square test (X2). There no significant differences in the percentage of infection between males and females in all study groups. In conclusion, the current study find that there is may be a close relationship between chronic toxoplasmosis and Parkinson's disease.