Mechanism of dexamethasone in the context of Toxoplasma gondii infection

Toxoplasmosis is a serious zoonoses disease and opportunistic, and can be life-threatening. Dexamethasone (DEX) is widely used in the clinic for treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. However, long-term use of DEX is often easy to lead to acute toxoplasmosis in patients, and the potential molecular mechanism is still not very clear. The aims of this study were to investigate the effect of DEX on proliferation of Toxoplasma and its molecular mechanisms, and to establish the corresponding control measures. All the results showed that dexamethasone could enhance the proliferation of Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoites. After 72 h of DEX treatment, 566 (±7) tachyzoites were found in 100 host cells, while only 86 (±8) tachyzoites were counted from the non-treated control cells (P < 0·01). Gas chromatography (GC) analysis showed changes in level and composition of fatty acids in DEX-treated host cells, and T. gondii. Fish oil was added as a modulator of lipid metabolism in experimental mice. It was found that mice fed with fish oil did not develop the disease after infection with T. gondii, and the structure of fatty acids in plasma changed significantly. The metabolism of fatty acid in the parasites was limited, and the desaturase gene expression was downregulated. These results indicate that the molecular mechanism of dexamethasone to promote the proliferation of T. gondii may be that dexamethasone induces the change of fatty acids composition of tachyzoites and host cells. Therefore, we recommend supplementation of fatty acid in immunosuppressive and immunocompromised patients in order to inhibit toxoplasmosis.