MARKERS OF INFLAMMATION, IMMUNITY AND RENAL DAMAGE IN DOGS WITH CANINE LEISHMANIASIS

Canine Leishmaniasis is a zoonotic disease that is spreading over mediterranean basin. Despite the pathogenesis of canine leishmaniasis has been investigated through several studies, some aspect of the host-parasite interaction that lead to overt diseases and typical inflammatory lesions have not yet been understood. Among these, the oxidant-anti-oxidant mechanisms that occur in dogs with the clinical disease are particularly interesting since on one hand they can provide to us useful information on the pathogenesis of the disease, which can also be a model for investigating immune-mediated chronic inflammatory conditions occurring also in other species on the other hand the identification of changes in molecules involved in oxidative stress may serve as a potential target for ancillary treatments or as markers of disease severity and progression. Similarly, most of the researches done until now have been focused on renal damage but only a few studies were focused on markers of tubular damage, despite the development of tubulo-interstitial nephritis is associated with more advanced stages of the disease. As regards inflammatory/oxidative responses, our studies confirmed the presence of oxidative phenomena associated with the inflammatory profiles of infected dogs and suggested that reactive oxygen species released by inflammatory cells are not the only oxidative mediators involved in this disease. The serial analysis of markers of inflammation or oxidation defined the possible role of these markers as prognostic factors, especially after treatment. More specifically, antioxidant molecules such as PON1 and HDL may play a role as early markers of remission after treatment since they quickly normalize in dogs that respond to treatments. As regards renal markers, we evidenced the possible role of GGT as a simple and inexpensive marker of tubular damage in dogs with leishmaniasis.