TY - JOUR
T1 - Sleep onset insomnia, daytime sleepiness and sleep duration in relationship to Toxoplasma gondii IgG seropositivity and serointensity
AU - Ahmad, Zaki
AU - Moustafa, Yara W.
AU - Stiller, John W.
AU - Pavlovich, Mary A.
AU - Raheja, Uttam K.
AU - Gragnoli, Claudia
AU - Snitker, Soren
AU - Nazem, Sarra
AU - Dagdag, Aline
AU - Fang, Beverly
AU - Fuchs, Dietmar
AU - Lowry, Christopher A.
AU - Postolache, Teodor T.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: We would like to thank The University of Maryland, Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and the U.S. Food and Drug Authority (U.S. FDA) for their support through their cooperative agreement FDU.001418 (PI Postolache). We also acknowledge our gratitude to the participants for their time and willingness to participate in the study. We also thank the entire staff of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Amish Research Clinic, Lancaster, PA, USA, particularly the nurses of the Amish Research Clinic, including Yvonne Rohrer, Donna Trubiano, Mary Morrissey, Theresa Roomet, Susan Shaub and Nancy Weitzel, and the Amish liaisons including Hanna King and Naomi Esh. Additional support was received from the MVM-CoRE, Denver, CO (Postolache, Lowry), Rocky Mountain MIRECC for Suicide Prevention, Denver, CO (Postolache, Lowry), the DC Department of Behavioral Health (Moustafa, Stiller, Raheja), the P30DK072488 NIDDK (NORC – child project developmental grant, Postolache) from the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA, the Merit Award 1 I01 CX001310-01 from CSR&D/Veterans Affairs Administration (PI Posto-lache), and NICHD 5R01HD086911-02 (PI Gragnoli). The authors express gratitude to Dr. Abhishek Wadhawan and Dr. Gurkaron Nijjar for their support in re-submission of this paper. We also thank Dr. Faisal Akram, Alexandra Dagdag and Dr. Abhishek Wadhawan for their help in proofreading this manuscript. The results and interpretations provided represent opinions of the authors and not necessarily the official positions of the VA, NIH or US-FDA.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.
PY - 2017/12/20
Y1 - 2017/12/20
N2 - Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) infects central nervous tissue and is kept in relative dormancy by a healthy immune system. Sleep disturbances have been found to precipitate mental illness, suicidal behavior and car accidents, which have been previously linked to T. gondii as well. We speculated that if sleep disruption, particularly insomnia, would mediate, at least partly, the link between T. gondii infection and related behavioral dysregulation, then we would be able to identify significant associations between sleep disruption and T. gondii. The mechanisms for such an association may involve dopamine (DA) production by T. gondii, or collateral effects of immune activation necessary to keep T. gondii in check. Sleep questionnaires from 2031 Old Order Amish were analyzed in relationship to T. gondii-IgG antibodies measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Toxoplasma gondii seropositivity and serointensity were not associated with any of the sleep latency variables or Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). A secondary analysis identified, after adjustment for age group, a statistical trend toward shorter sleep duration in seropositive men (p=0.07). In conclusion, it is unlikely that sleep disruption mediates links between T. gondii and mental illness or behavioral dysregulation. Trending gender differences in associations between T. gondii and shorter sleep need further investigation.
AB - Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) infects central nervous tissue and is kept in relative dormancy by a healthy immune system. Sleep disturbances have been found to precipitate mental illness, suicidal behavior and car accidents, which have been previously linked to T. gondii as well. We speculated that if sleep disruption, particularly insomnia, would mediate, at least partly, the link between T. gondii infection and related behavioral dysregulation, then we would be able to identify significant associations between sleep disruption and T. gondii. The mechanisms for such an association may involve dopamine (DA) production by T. gondii, or collateral effects of immune activation necessary to keep T. gondii in check. Sleep questionnaires from 2031 Old Order Amish were analyzed in relationship to T. gondii-IgG antibodies measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Toxoplasma gondii seropositivity and serointensity were not associated with any of the sleep latency variables or Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). A secondary analysis identified, after adjustment for age group, a statistical trend toward shorter sleep duration in seropositive men (p=0.07). In conclusion, it is unlikely that sleep disruption mediates links between T. gondii and mental illness or behavioral dysregulation. Trending gender differences in associations between T. gondii and shorter sleep need further investigation.
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U2 - 10.1515/pterid-2017-0010
DO - 10.1515/pterid-2017-0010
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85037862103
VL - 28
SP - 195
EP - 204
JO - Pteridines
JF - Pteridines
SN - 0933-4807
IS - 3-4
ER -