Establishment of a murine model of congenital toxoplasmosis and validation of a qPCR assay to assess the parasite load in maternal and fetal tissues.

ABSTRACT: Toxoplasma gondii is the causative agent of toxoplasmosis, a disease that affects warm-blooded animals and one third of the human population worldwide. Pregnant women who have never been exposed to the parasite constitute an important risk group, as infection during pregnancy often leads to congenital toxoplasmosis, the most severe form of the disease. Current therapy for toxoplasmosis is the same as it was 50 years ago and has little or no effect when vertical transmission occurs. Therefore, it is urgent to develop new strategies to prevent mother-to-fetus transmission. The implementation of experimental animal models of congenital toxoplasmosis that reproduces the transmission rates and clinical signs in humans opens an avenue of possibilities to interfere in the progression of th

SUBMITTER: Souza JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10009190 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature