Advanced studies on Trypanosoma evansi: Does Trypanosoma evansi cause cancer or behave like a cancerous cell?
Description
Cancer is an uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells found in animals as in humans, and symptoms are often similar to those in people. Recently, many bacterial, viral, and helminth infections are considered major causes of cancer. The current study aims to discuss whether Trypanosoma evansi causes cancer or behaves like a cancerous cell, and to assess the potential effects of sex on the measured parameters. Advanced tumor biomarkers and accompanied clinicopathological criteria used to discover the carcinogenic effects and progression of T. evansi in experimentally infected Albino Wistar rats. Results revealed that death appears highly correlated with the length of fulmination of parasitemia. Clinicopathological changes were associated with significant differences (P<0.05) increases in antitrypanosomal IgM, IgG, and CEA in the infected rats. Whereas, the levels of malignant and tumor biomarkers such as IL-2, α-TNT, B2-M, AFP increased with highly significant differences (P<.0001). In contrast, CRP, CA-125, and CA-15.3 levels increased with no significant differences (P>0.05) in females. Similarly, CRP, serum PSA, and CA-19.9 levels elevated in infected males by the end of the experiment. Blood picture analysis showed leucopenia and anemia rose significantly more in males than females. Biochemical analysis showed hypoglycemia, hypoproteinemia, hypolipidemia, and fluctuations in enzymes followed by experimental infections in both infected groups. Despite the examined tissues not severely changeable by the infection along with the short time of the experiment, the uncontrolled parasitemia load in T. evansi leads to further adverse pathogenesis to the host, causing cell and tissue destruction as generated by invasive cancer cells. Sex was a risk factor following a T. evansi infection. We concluded that the studied parameters confirmed that T. evansi could behave like cancer and possibly carcinogenic to rats. The correlation between all studied parameters evidenced that T. evansi probably causes leukemia and hepatocarcinoma, and the spread of infection coincides with the nature of cancer. Keywords: Cancer; Trypanosoma evansi; Tumor markers; Clinicopathological; Rats. Conclusion The current study measured the levels of tumor markers in the serum of rats experimentally infected with T. evansi and correlates these levels with hematological and pathophysiological parameters. It could be considered T. evansi as a typical cancer, however, the subsequent uncontrolled growth was seen and rats died in a few days by T. evansi on contrary to T. brucei previously studied pointed to it maybe the cancerous form of T. brucei. The correlation between all studied parameters evidenced that T. evansi probably causes leukemia and hepatocarcinoma, and the spread of infection from organs to others coincides with the nature of cancer. Acknowledgment The author gratefully acknowledges the financial support and is funded by the Desert Research Center in Cairo, Egypt