Dr. Marie-Kristin Raulf (Hannover / DE), Dr. Andrea Springer (Hannover / DE), Prof. Dr. Christina Strube (Hannover / DE)
Abstract text
Neuroinvasive third-stage larvae (neural larva migrans, NLM) of Toxocara canis or Toxocara cati may lead to severe neurological symptoms in paratenic hosts, known as neurotoxocarosis (NT).
To improve the understanding of Toxocara-induced neuropathology, several studies focused on the investigation of NLM in the mouse as the most appropriate model organism for NT.
In the past decade, several defined aspects of NLM were unravelled such as the differential neurotropism of T. canis and T. cati, Toxocara-mediated neuronal demyelination, neurobehavioural as well as memory function deficits and pathological, transcriptional as well as lipidomic changes in infected mice. All of these mentioned studies were performed under similar conditions, including the same mouse and parasite strains, infective doses and examination time points, making these data suitable for comparative meta-analysis.
Initial results showed correlations between memory impairment, larval recovery, microglia activation, β-amyloid precursor protein accumulation and demyelination of infected mice. Moreover, an extended meta-analysis including differentially transcribed genes and immunomodulatory mediators will aid in elucidating whether Toxocara-mediated neurodegenerative processes are a cause of neurological and behavioural impairments.
In conclusion, this meta-analysis will provide a holistic and comprehensive overview on and unravel the relation between above-mentioned features of neurotoxocarosis.