title: Genetic variation in the Cytb gene of human cerebral Taenia solium cysticerci recovered from clinically and radiologically heterogeneous patients with neurocysticercosis.
abstract: Neurocysticercosis (NC) is a clinically and radiologically heterogeneous parasitic disease caused by the establishment of larval Taenia solium in the human central nervous system. Host and/or parasite variations may be related to this observed heterogeneity. Genetic differences between pig and human-derived T. solium cysticerci have been reported previously. In this study, 28 cysticerci were surgically removed from 12 human NC patients, the mitochondrial gene that encodes cytochrome b was amplified from the cysticerci and genetic variations that may be related to NC heterogeneity were characterised. Nine different haplotypes (Ht), which were clustered in four haplogroups (Hg), were identified. Hg 3 and 4 exhibited a tendency to associate with age and gender, respectively. However, no significant associations were found between NC heterogeneity and the different T. solium cysticerci Ht or Hg. Parasite variants obtained from patients with similar NC clinical or radiological features were genetically closer than those found in groups of patients with a different NC profile when using the Mantel test. Overall, this study establishes the presence of genetic differences in the Cytb gene of T. solium isolated from human cysticerci and suggests that parasite variation could contribute to NC heterogeneity.
authors.affiliation: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, MéxicoDF, México.
authors.forename: Héctor
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Palafox-Fonseca
authors.forename: Gerardo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zúñiga
authors.forename: Raúl José
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Bobes
authors.forename: Tzipe
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Govezensky
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Piñero
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Texco-Martínez
authors.forename: Agnès
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fleury
authors.forename: Jefferson
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Proaño
authors.forename: Graciela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cárdenas
authors.forename: Marisela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hernández
authors.forename: Edda
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sciutto
authors.forename: Gladis
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fragoso
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D045303:Cytochromes b / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020019:Neurocysticercosis / Q000469:parasitology*; D041201:Taenia solium / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D045303:Cytochromes b