Abordagens da literatura atual do processo neuroinflamatório em modelo animal infectado pelo Toxoplasma Gondii: uma revisão integrativa

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is a Euryxene parasite, in which the felines are the definitive hosts and the other warm-blooded animals the intermediate hosts, having clinical importance mainly in immunocompromised individuals, being able to cause behavioral changes in a rodent model. Among the neurophysiological mechanisms used to explain this phenomenon is the influence of the immune response on the Central Nervous System (CNS). Since neuroimmunology has been gaining scientific space in recent years, the objective of this article was to evaluate the approaches of the current literature on the neuroinflammatory process in an animal model infected by T. gondii, using an integrative literature review. Articles that met the inclusion criteria were included in this review, indexed in the PUBMED (National Library of Medicine) and SCOPUS databases, which carried out experimental research with rodents from January 2017 to May 2021. In all, 16 were found. articles, and 10 were selected for full reading and 6 were excluded. The approaches evaluated were: a) Correlation between physical state or animal behavior and neuroinflammation; b) influence of astrocytes and microglia in the neuroinflammatory process; c) influence of the immune response to changes in neurotransmitters and d) other immunological factors and their influence on the CNS. The integrative review allowed the discussion of the main approaches in the literature on the subject, giving an overview, in which some considerations were made that may contribute to the development of new experimental research, which evaluate the influence of the immune response in the CNS of parasitized animals.