title: Characterization of circulating lymphocyte subpopulations in canine leishmaniasis throughout treatment with antimonials and allopurinol.
abstract: Canine leishmaniasis (CL) is a systemic parasitic disease with a wide variability of response to specific therapy: the majority of patients apparently improve with treatment, some of them respond but later relapse, and few of them do not respond at all. It has been demonstrated that the immune response plays a key role in the development and outcome of Leishmania infection in the dog and in the response to the treatment, although this response is not well understood. Some authors have suggested that ill dogs show a reduction in the percentage of circulating CD4+ lymphocytes and in the CD4+/CD8+ ratio, both of which normalize after treatment and clinical recovery. The present paper discusses the variation of the different lymphocyte subpopulations (CD3, CD4, CD8, CD21) of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in 28 dogs diagnosed with CL and submitted to conventional treatment with meglumine antimoniate (Glucantime) for 1 month and with allopurinol (Zyloric) for 1 year, in order to evaluate the usefulness of these parameters as indicators of the immunological condition of the ill animals and of the prognosis of their evolution during the treatment. It is concluded that circulating lymphocyte subpopulations are similar in dogs with leishmaniasis and in healthy dogs and that there is no correlation between the clinical status or response to therapy and the values of the counts of the different lymphocyte subpopulations. Therefore, the percentage of different lymphocyte subpopulations cannot be used as a parameter to predict the evolution of an individual patient in a clinical context.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Medicina i Cirurgia Animals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Miranda
authors.forename: Susanna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Martorell
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.forename: Lluis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ferrer
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ramis
mesh_terms: D000493:Allopurinol / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000818:Animals; D000981:Antiprotozoal Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D016773:Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism; D016131:Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008536:Meglumine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000077485:Meglumine Antimoniate; D009942:Organometallic Compounds / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D000981:Antiprotozoal Agents; D009942:Organometallic Compounds; D000493:Allopurinol; D008536:Meglumine; D000077485:Meglumine Antimoniate