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Brain –cyst-driven genes expression in Toxoplasma Gondii Tehran strain: a parasitic-immunogenicity assessment by dint of RNA-Seq

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Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is an obligate intracellular parasite of warm-blooded vertebrates. At present, High-throughput RNA sequencing analysis have made it possible to determine the role of effective genes in host immune response. The aim of the present study is to global transcriptome analysis of the brain of mice infected with T. gondii Tehran strain for the first time and also to evaluate the expression of effective genes in the chronic form of infection. RNA was extracted from the samples and the library was prepared and sequenced using the IlluminaNovaSeq 6000 system. After analyzing gene expression changes, the results were confirmed by real-time method. We found 125 genes that were significantly differentially expressed between infected and non-infected samples (p < 0.0005). Gene ontology analysis revealed that the expression of many genes is critical for pathways such as T cell receptor signaling pathway, Natural Killer cell mediated cytotoxicity, Lysosome and Apoptosis of the host. As infection with Tehran strain leads to chronic infection in mice, therefore, we investigated the genes effective in creating the chronic form of Toxoplasma infection. The comparative analysis of genes showed increases in the expression of genes ctla4, ccl4, cd3e, c3, lcn2, gbp5, usp18, cyba, tap1 and samhd1 in the in the infected sample, which highlights their role in causing chronic infection. RNA-seq provides a valuable tool for analyzing host transcriptomes, better understanding the parasite-host interaction, and develo** future drug and vaccine targets.

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Data availability

RNA-seq data obtained at NCBI were deposited at SRA under project accession number PRJNA910664.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Kerman University of Medical Sciences (Kerman, Iran) for supporting this study.

Funding

This work was supported by Kerman University of Medical Sciences (No.1399.548).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

    Marzieh Asadi & Naser ZiaAli

  2. Leishmaniasis Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, 22 Bahman Boulevard, Pajouhesh Square, Kerman, Iran

    Zahra Babaei & Farzaneh Zarrinkar

  3. Research Center for Hydatid Disease in Iran, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

    Ali Afgar

  4. Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics (HGEN), Centre for Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science (VHC), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, 75007, Sweden

    Mohammad Hossein Banabazi

  5. Toxoplasmosis Research Center, Communicable Diseases Institute, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

    Ahmad Daryani

  6. Computer-Oriented Software Engineering, Rouzbahan University of Mazandaran, Sari, Iran

    Ehsan Aghajani & Milad Mahdavi

  7. College of Agriculture & National Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

    Mohamadreza Attari

Authors
  1. Marzieh Asadi
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  2. Zahra Babaei
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  3. Ali Afgar
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  4. Mohammad Hossein Banabazi
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  5. Naser ZiaAli
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  8. Milad Mahdavi
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  9. Mohamadreza Attari
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  10. Farzaneh Zarrinkar
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Contributions

MA Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Writing – original draft, review & editing. ZB Project administration, Supervision, Writing - review & editing, Funding acquisition. AA Conceptualization, Project administration, Supervision, Writing - review & editing. MHB Methodology, review & editing. NZA Methodology, Writing - review & editing. A DWriting - review & editing. E A Methodology, Software. MM Methodology, Software. MA Methodology, Software. FZ review & editing. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Zahra Babaei or Ali Afgar.

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Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee in accordance with the instructions of the Ethics Commission of Kerman University of Medical Sciences (Project ethic number: IR.KMU.REC.1399.548).

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Asadi, M., Babaei, Z., Afgar, A. et al. Brain –cyst-driven genes expression in Toxoplasma Gondii Tehran strain: a parasitic-immunogenicity assessment by dint of RNA-Seq. Vet Res Commun (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11259-023-10241-8

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