Case-Control Study to Assess the Association between Epilepsy and <i>Toxocara</i> Infection/Exposure

oleh: Ali Alizadeh Khatir, Mahdi Sepidarkish, Mohammad Reza Rajabalizadeh, Solmaz Alizadeh Moghaddam, Saeed Aghapour, Saeed Mehravar, Peter J. Hotez, Robin B. Gasser, Ali Rostami

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2021-10-01

Deskripsi

Although causes and etiology of epilepsy are mostly obscure, some zoonotic parasites, such as <i>Toxocara</i> species, have been proposed as a risk factor for this disease. Here, we conducted an age-matched case-control study to evaluate whether there is an association between epilepsy and the presence of serum antibodies to <i>Toxocara</i> in incident cases. We included 94 idiopathic epileptic patients as cases, and—from the same geographical region—88 people with no own history of epilepsy or neurological disease as control subjects. Epilepsy was confirmed by a physician using the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) definition. All participants were screened for the anti-<i>Toxocara</i> IgG serum antibody by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Univariate and mutltivariate statistical analyses were applied to calculate the crude and adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Anti-<i>Toxocara</i> serum antibody was detected in 37 epileptic patients and in 23 control subjects, giving respective seroprevalences of 39.3% (95% CI, 29.4–49.9%) and 26.1% (95% CI, 17.3–36.5%), respectively. Adjusted multivariate logistic regression analysis estimated an OR of 2.38 (95% CI, 1.25–4.63), indicating a significant association between epilepsy and <i>Toxocara</i> seropositivity. There was also a significant association between seropositivity to <i>Toxocara</i> and partial (OR, 2.60; 95% CI, 1.14–6.04) or generalized (OR, 2.17; 95% CI, 1.09–4.40%) seizures. Findings from the present study of incident epileptic cases support previous studies proposing that <i>Toxocara</i> infection/exposure is a risk factor for epilepsy. However, further well-designed population-based surveys and mechanistic/experimental studies in animal models are required to better understand the reason(s) for this association.