ABSTRACT
This study intended to apply the flow cytometric analysis of IgA and IgG reactivity and intracytoplasmic cytokine analysis to understand and decode the clinical aspects of infants with ocular congenital toxoplasmosis. The Toxoplasma gondii-infected infants (TOXO) were subdivided according to their clinical aspects based on the absence (NRL), presence of active (ARL), active/cicatricial (ACRL) or cicatricial retinochoroidal lesions (CRL) and compared to non-infected controls (NI). The reactivity of anti-T. gondii IgG subclasses resembles the clinical aspects of ocular lesions. IgG and IgG1 discriminate infants with cicatricial lesions (ACRL and CRL) from both ARL and NLR. IgG2 and IgG3 are particularly higher in ACRL and CRL as compared to NLR. No differences were observed when IgG4 reactivity was evaluated. Thus, the results indicated that the reactivity patterns of IgA, IgG and IgG subclasses are able to discriminate ARL, ACRL and CRL from NLR or NI. IgA and IgG subclasses are relevant serological biomarkers with diagnostic and prognostic applicability, respectively. Moreover, IgA and IgG1 were closely related to cytokine production by innate/adaptive immunity cells. IgA reactivity was directly associated to TNF-α-derived from neutrophils, monocytes and CD8(+) T-cells, while IgG1 was inversely correlated with IFN-γ-producing CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-cells but positively correlated with IL-10(+) B-cells. These findings provide insights on the relationship between the cytokine production by innate/adaptive immunity and the antibody pattern of infants with ocular congenital toxoplasmosis. In addition, the present study supports the use of flow cytometric serology as a potential tool for the diagnosis and monitoring of ocular lesions in T. gondii-infected infants in the clinical setting.
