Abstract:

Objective  To investigate the seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection and identify the genotypes of T. gondii isolates from cancer patients in Anhui Province.  Methods  Three hundred and fifty-six blood samples were collected from outpatients and hospitalized cancer patients in Hefei， Anhui Province. IgG and gM antibodies specific to T gondii were determined by ELISA. The ELISA positive samples were subjected to detection of Toxoplasma DNA with PCR targeting a 529-bp repeat element of T. gondii. Genotyping of T. gondii isolates was performed using multilocus PCR-RFLP and 10 genetic markers， including 9 nuclear loci， sag1， sag2， sag3， btub， gra6， L358， pk1， c22-8， c29-2， and apico.  Results  Among 356 cancer patients， 21（5.9%） cases were found to be IgG-positive and 8（2.3%） were IgM-positive， and five of them were found to have both IgG and IgM antibodies. The total seroprevalence of Toxoplasma infection was 6.8%. Six PCR-positive samples were genotyped at 10 loci and two of them obtained all genetic markers and identified as the genotype of Chinese 1（ToxoDB#9）.  Conclusion  In this study， latent and active toxoplasmosis exist in the patients with malignant tumors， and two isolates are genotyped as the type of Chinese 1（ToxoDB#9） in Anhui， China.

Key words: Cancer, Toxoplasma gondii, Genotyping