Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the effect of rosuvastatin treatment on anxiety-related behavior and short- and long-term memory impairment in mice infected with acute RH and BRI strains of Toxoplasma gondii. Balb/C mice were infected intraperitoneally and after 2 h, oral treatment with rosuvastatin (40 mg/kg/day) was initiated for 4 days. Behaviors related to anxiety and locomotion were evaluated in the open field (OF), and short- and long-term memory through the novel object recognition test (NOR). At the end of the experiments, peritoneal fluid, brain, liver, and lung were collected for T. gondii DNA quantification and histopathological analysis. Infection with BRI strain reduced the dwell time and central locomotion in the OF (p < 0.05), indicating anxiogenic type behavior, while treatment with rosuvastatin reversed this response (p < 0.05). RH strain infection did not alter any behavior in the OF (p > 0.05) and both strains impaired short- and long-term memory (NOR test), but with no significant treatment effect (p > 0.05). The BRI strain was shown to be more damaging in relation to anxiogenic type behavior when compared to the RH strain (p < 0.05), whereas rosuvastatin reduced this damaging effect in BRI. The treatment reduced the parasite load in the peritoneal lavage, liver, and lung of animals infected with both acute strains; however, it significantly (p < 0.05) attenuated the inflammatory process only in BRI-infected and treated animals, showing that non-archetypal genotypes are more damaging in rodents. This suggests that rosuvastatin may be a drug with great therapeutic potential against T. gondii mainly to reduce damage from virulent strains.
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The data sets used can be accessed at the link: < https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17M8ihYTbcpioqxP6RnFjk-qg2vrUvOEk?usp=drive_link > .
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The authors would like to thank the Academic Writing Center (Centro de Escrita Acadêmica, CEA) of the State University of Maringá (UEM) for assistance with English language translation and developmental editing.
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This work was carried out with support from the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brazil (CAPES)—Funding Code 001 and Fundação Araucária de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico do Estado do Paraná—Brazil (FA).
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Conceptualization: FFE, ALFG. Methodology: FFE, WCF, TAF, MLS, AHS, FALA, DAS. Formal analysis: FFE, WCF, PLS, CMC, LDB, GANM, INC. Investigation: FFE, WCF, TAF, MLS, AHS, FALA, DAS. Resources: FFE, TAF, MLS, AHS, FALA, DAS. Data curation: WCF, PLS, LDB, ALFG. Writing—original draft preparation: FFE, WCF, PLS, CMC, GANM, INC, LDB. Writing—review and editing: FFE, WCF, PLS, ALFG. Supervision: ALFG.
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Evangelista, F.F., de Laet Sant’Ana, P., Ferreira, W.C. et al. The Brazilian Toxoplasma gondii strain BRI caused greater inflammation and impairment in anxiogenic behavior in mice, which was reverted by rosuvastatin treatment. Parasitol Res 123, 64 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-023-08038-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-023-08038-4