Author(s)

Gnatoulma Katawa¹, Malewe Kolou^2*, Liza Koboyo Nadjir², Essoham Ataba¹, Gatigbene Bomboma¹, Simplice Damintoti Karou¹

¹Ecole Superieure des Techniques Biologiques et Alimentaires (ESTBA-UL), Universite de Lome, Lomé, Togo.
²Laboratoire de Biologie Moleculaire et d’Immunologie (BIOLIM), Universite de Lome, Lomé, Togo.

Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is a parasite responsible of toxoplasmosis, a disease often asymptomatic but with serious consequences in pregnant women and immunocompromised subjects. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the impact of T. gondii infection on CD4+ T lymphocytes count in HIV-infected pregnant women. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of pregnant women co-infected by HIV and T. gondii. The study was conducted from January to July 2016 at the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) sites in the Health District of Lacs in Togo. Diagnosis of HIV was performed by immuno-chromatographic methods with Determine TM HIV-1/2 and immuno-filtration with Tri-Dot HIV-1 and 2 kits. Presence of anti-toxoplasmic IgG and IgM antibodies was established via enzyme immunoassay using ELISA-BIOREX® kit. Flow cytometry was used to count CD4+ T lymphocytes. Results: Our study found that of the 4599 pregnant women, 111 (2.41%) were HIV-positive. Among them, 109 (98.20%) were infected by HIV-1 and 2 (1.98%) by HIV-2. Antibodies against T. gondii were detected in 5.36% (IgM), 25% (IgG) and 3.57% (both IgM and IgG) of HIV 56 infected women. There was no significant difference between CD4 cell count in HIV (+)/T. gondii IgM (-)/IgG (-) infected pregnant women (378.8 ± 222.8 cell//μl) compared to HIV (+)/T. gondii/IgM (+) (457.3 ± 183.3 cell//μl), HIV (+)/T. gondii IgG (+) (419.4 ± 287.3 cell//μl) and HIV (+)/T. gondii IgM/IgG (+) (480.5 ± 252.4 cell/μl). Conclusion: This study showed that intracellular parasite T. gondii did not alter CD4+ T lymphocytes count in HIV/T. gondii co-infected pregnant women.

HIV, Toxoplasma gondii, Co-Infection, CD4+ T Lymphocytes Count

Katawa, G. , Kolou, M. , Nadjir, L. , Ataba, E. , Bomboma, G. and Karou, S. (2018) CD4 T-Lymphocytes Count in HIV-Toxoplasma gondii Co-Infected Pregnant Women Undergoing a Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission Program. Journal of Biosciences and Medicines, 6, 76-84. doi: 10.4236/jbm.2018.64006.