Leishmania (L.) amazonensis infection impairs reproductive and fetal parameters in female mice

Dosing implications for liposomal amphotericin B in pregnancy

Liposomal amphotericin B (LAmB) is used in the treatment of opportunistic fungal and parasitic infections, including leishmaniasis. Given its lack of known teratogenicity in pregnancy, LAmB is a preferred agent for treatment for these patients. However, significant gaps remain in determining optimal dosing regimens for LAmB in pregnancy. We describe the use of LAmB for a pregnant patient with mucocutaneous leishmaniasis (MCL) using a dosing strategy of 5 mg/kg/day for days 1-7 using ideal body weight followed by 4 mg/kg weekly using adjusted body weight. We reviewed the literature for LAmB dosing strategies, particularly dosing weight, in pregnancy. Of the 143 cases identified in 17 studies, only one reported a dosing weight, in which ideal body weight was used. Five Infectious Diseases Society of America guidelines in total discussed the use of amphotericin B in pregnancy but no guidelines included recommendations for dosing weight. This review describes our experience in using ideal body weight for dosing LAmB in pregnancy for the treatment of MCL. Use of ideal body weight may minimize risk of adverse effects to the fetus compared to the use of total body weight while maintaining efficacy for treatment of MCL in pregnancy.

Maternal gastrointestinal nematode infection enhances spatial memory of uninfected juvenile mouse pups

The developing brain is particularly vulnerable to factors including maternal infection during pregnancy. Establishment of neural networks critical for memory and cognition begins during the perinatal period, when Heligmosomoides bakeri, a gastrointestinal (GI) nematode restricted to the maternal mouse intestine, has been shown to upregulate expression of long-term potentiation genes in the young rodent pup brain. We explored the impact of maternal infection during pregnancy and early lactation on the spatial behavior of uninfected male and female juvenile mice. Pre-weaned pups of H. bakeri infected dams exhibited less exploratory behaviour compared to pups of uninfected dams on postnatal day (PD) 16 but not PD 17, possibly reflecting a transient fear of an unfamiliar environment and/or a brief neurodevelopmental delay. Our two spatial memory tests show for the first time an enhancement of spatial memory in response to maternal nematode infection regardless of pup sex. At PD 17, pups of infected dams expressed object location memories after 3 h in the Object Location Test whereas offspring of uninfected mothers did not. In addition, at PD 34, juveniles of infected mothers retained their ability to find the escape hole in the Barnes Maze Test for one week whereas offspring from uninfected mothers did not. This finding is even more striking given that spatial memory was positively associated with pup length, yet this maternal infection impaired linear growth of pups. Thus, the positive impact of maternal infection on spatial memory countered any impairment associated with the shorter length of the pups. Overall, these novel findings indicate that a maternal GI nematode infection during pregnancy and lactation positively influences the spatial memory of uninfected juvenile offspring with potential fitness implications for the next generation.

Robust comparative performance of genomic DNA extraction methods from non-engorged phlebotomine sandflies

The present study is a comparative analysis of DNeasy Blood & Tissue Qiagen® kit (Qiagen®, Hilden, Alemanha), salting out, HotShot and phenol-chloroform protocols to extract DNA from sandflies. In addition, a comparative test using sandflies with and without eyes evaluated the potential inhibitory effect in the cPCR. An inhibition test was performed using an exogenous DNA added to the qPCR. The genomic DNA quality of each sample was evaluated by cPCR based on the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (cox1) gene. The DNA extraction protocols showed the following percentage of amplification: HotShot (91.6% [55/60]), salting out (71.6% [43/60]), phenol-chloroform (95% [57/60]) and kit DNeasy Blood & Tissue Qiagen® (73.3% [44/60]). The phenol-chloroform method achieved a significantly higher frequency of cox1 gene amplification. The pigment present in the phlebotomine's eyes seems to inhibit cPCR reactions since the frequency of amplification of the cox1 gene increased in the sandflies without eyes (p < 0.0001). The HotShot method showed the highest inhibitory potential. These manual extraction techniques can be an inexpensive and effective alternative to study vector-pathogen interactions.