Genes of the innate and adaptive imune response differentially expressed in dog brains with Visceral Leishmaniasis

Visceral canine leishmaniasis (LVC) is a chronic, invariably progressive disease of high clinical variability including neurological disorders. To investigate the neurological changes triggered by LVC, the expression of genes involved in the innate and adaptive immune response in brains of naturally infected dogs to Leishmania infantum was performed. Male and female dogs, 1 to 5 years of age, with no previous breed, previous clinical and laboratory evaluation, histopathological evaluation, and absence of major coinfections were organized into two groups (Infected) with 11 dogs and group Control) with 04 dogs. The evaluation of gene expression was performed by PCR Profiler with commercial Kit RT² Profiler ™ PCR Array Dog Innate & Adaptive Immune Responses (Qiagen®). The p-value stipulated was ≤ 0.05 per Student's t-Test. Inflammatory infiltrates, mild to moderate, were found in infected dogs. There was an increase in expression of 24 genes of different subclasses compared to the control group (IRF6, CD4, CD40LG, TLR6, CCR4, TLR5, CCR8, CCL3, IFNG, IFNB1, TNF, IL13, IRF3, CD14, CD209, CD80, TLR4, CD86, CCR6, TRAF6, TLR7, RORC, NOD1, STAT3). This information indicates the involvement of the innate and adaptive immune response in the brain of dogs with LVC, and the high expression of these can be considered a key factor for the onset, maintenance and persistence of inflammation. (AU)