Project description:The study critically evaluate the results of 16S targeted amplicon sequencing performed on the total DNA collected from healthy donors’ blood samples in the light of specific negative controls.
Project description:<p>Toxocariasis, mainly caused by <em>Toxocara canis</em>, and to a lesser extent, <em>Toxocara cati</em>, is a neglected parasitic zoonosis. The mechanisms that underlie the changes in lipid metabolism of <em>T. canis</em> infection in Beagle dogs' lungs remain unclear. Lipidomics is a rapidly emerging approach that enables the global profiling of lipid composition by mass spectrometry. In this study, we performed a non-targeted lipidomic analysis of the lungs of Beagle dogs infected with the roundworm <em>T. canis</em> using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). A total of 1197 lipid species were identified, of which 63, 88 and 157 lipid species were significantly altered at 24 h post-infection (hpi), 96 hpi and 36 days post-infection (dpi), respectively. This global lipidomic profiling identified infection-specific lipid signatures for lung toxocariasis, and represented a comprehensive comparison between the lipid composition of dogs' lungs in the presence and absence of <em>T. canis</em> infection. The potential roles of the identified lipid species in the pathogenesis of <em>T. canis</em> are discussed, which has important implications for better understanding the interaction mechanism between <em>T. canis</em> and the host lung.</p>