Molecular evidence of Toxoplasma gondii infection, neuropathology and immunofluorescent detection in the amygdala, hippocampus, pre-frontal cortex, and occipital areas from forensic human brain tissue from suicide, traffic accidents, and homicide victims.

Several studies have linked to human toxoplasmosis with neuropsychiatric disorders, (Contopoulus-loannidis, Gianniki, Ai-Nhi Truong, & Montoya, 2022) (Milne, Webster, & Walker, 2020) (Sutterland, y otros, 2015) suicide behavior (Soleymani, Faizi, Heidarimonghadam, Davoodi, & Mohammadi, 2020) and traffic accidents (Sutterland, y otros, 2019; Gohardehi, y otros, 2018). Few studies in forensic samples are looking for the correlation between positive results using PCR or Immunohistochemistry to detect T. gondii presence in brain tissue from mental disease (Alvarado-Esquivel, y Otros, 2021) (Conejero-Goldberg, Torrey, & Yolken, 2003), traffic accidents (Samojlowicz, y otros, 2019) or suicide behavior (Mendoza-Larios, y otros, 2023). All of these report no statistical association and low rates of prevalence. new questions are made around the findings in the neurological areas associated with suicide behavior (Abou Chahla, y Otros, 2023) of people with and without mental disease (Kékesi, y Otros, 2012) and in relationship to infection associated with behavior changes (Boillat, y otros, 2020; Berenreiterová, Flegr, Kubëna, & Nëmec, 2011), to human brain architecture change (Halonen, Lyman, & Chiu, 1996) and neurotransmitters change from tissue infected with strains type I (Xiao, Ye, Jones-Brando, & Yolken, 2013).Methodology: prospective case-control study where the cases correspond to suicide victims and controls were assigned to two groups: pedestrian and homicide victims from the coffee region of Colombia. Samples correspond to ~4mg of brain tissue from the amygdala, hippocampus, occipital, and prefrontal areas and ~2mg for indirect immunofluorescence antibody test (IFAT) and histopathological analyses. Inclusion criteria: only habitants belong to this region with i) consent informed signed, ii) 8 brain samples, iii) one serum sample iv) samples labeled with high quality, and v) three days postmortem maximum. Of the 57 forensic events, 29,8% (17/57) of the cases were positive by real-time PCR: the suicide group (26.9%) and (32.2%) in the control group (6/17 in homicide and 4/14 in traffic accidents). There were individuals with three positive areas in suicide, the neurological area with the highest positivity by real-time PCR was the amygdala (p=0.03). IFAT with anti-BAG1 antibody was positive in six of 21 cases (28.5%), Cysts ~30 µm were found with an approximate density of one cyst per 20 fields. In 42 forensic serum samples, (45.2%) IgG titers