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“Begging the Question”—Does Toxocara Infection/Exposure Associate with Multiple Sclerosis-Risk?

Although the cause of multiple sclerosis (MS) is unclear, infectious agents, including some parasitic roundworms (nematodes), have been proposed as possible risk factors or contributors. Here, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of published observational studies to evaluate whether t...

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Autores principales: Taghipour, Ali, Rostami, Ali, Esfandyari, Sahar, Aghapour, Saeed, Nicoletti, Alessandra, Gasser, Robin B.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7696196/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33187271
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens9110938
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author Taghipour, Ali
Rostami, Ali
Esfandyari, Sahar
Aghapour, Saeed
Nicoletti, Alessandra
Gasser, Robin B.
author_facet Taghipour, Ali
Rostami, Ali
Esfandyari, Sahar
Aghapour, Saeed
Nicoletti, Alessandra
Gasser, Robin B.
author_sort Taghipour, Ali
collection PubMed
description Although the cause of multiple sclerosis (MS) is unclear, infectious agents, including some parasitic roundworms (nematodes), have been proposed as possible risk factors or contributors. Here, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of published observational studies to evaluate whether there is a possible association between infection with, or exposure to, one or more members of the genus Toxocara (phylum Nematoda; superfamily Ascaridoidea) and MS. We undertook a search of public literature databases to identify relevant studies and then used a random-effects meta-analysis model to generate the pooled odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). This search identified six of a total of 1371 articles that were relevant to the topic; these published studies involved totals of 473 MS patients and 647 control subjects. Anti-Toxocara IgG serum antibodies were detected in 62 MS patients and 37 controls, resulting in respective seroprevalences of 13.1% (95% CI: 8.2–20.3) and 4.8% (95% CI: 2.5–9.2), indicating an association (pooled OR, 3.01; 95% CI: 1.46–6.21). Because of the publication bias identified (six eligible studies), well-designed and -controlled studies are required in the future to rigorously test the hypothesis that Toxocara infection/exposure has an association with MS.
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spelling pubmed-76961962020-11-29 “Begging the Question”—Does Toxocara Infection/Exposure Associate with Multiple Sclerosis-Risk? Taghipour, Ali Rostami, Ali Esfandyari, Sahar Aghapour, Saeed Nicoletti, Alessandra Gasser, Robin B. Pathogens Article Although the cause of multiple sclerosis (MS) is unclear, infectious agents, including some parasitic roundworms (nematodes), have been proposed as possible risk factors or contributors. Here, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of published observational studies to evaluate whether there is a possible association between infection with, or exposure to, one or more members of the genus Toxocara (phylum Nematoda; superfamily Ascaridoidea) and MS. We undertook a search of public literature databases to identify relevant studies and then used a random-effects meta-analysis model to generate the pooled odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). This search identified six of a total of 1371 articles that were relevant to the topic; these published studies involved totals of 473 MS patients and 647 control subjects. Anti-Toxocara IgG serum antibodies were detected in 62 MS patients and 37 controls, resulting in respective seroprevalences of 13.1% (95% CI: 8.2–20.3) and 4.8% (95% CI: 2.5–9.2), indicating an association (pooled OR, 3.01; 95% CI: 1.46–6.21). Because of the publication bias identified (six eligible studies), well-designed and -controlled studies are required in the future to rigorously test the hypothesis that Toxocara infection/exposure has an association with MS. MDPI 2020-11-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7696196/ /pubmed/33187271 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens9110938 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Taghipour, Ali
Rostami, Ali
Esfandyari, Sahar
Aghapour, Saeed
Nicoletti, Alessandra
Gasser, Robin B.
“Begging the Question”—Does Toxocara Infection/Exposure Associate with Multiple Sclerosis-Risk?
title “Begging the Question”—Does Toxocara Infection/Exposure Associate with Multiple Sclerosis-Risk?
title_full “Begging the Question”—Does Toxocara Infection/Exposure Associate with Multiple Sclerosis-Risk?
title_fullStr “Begging the Question”—Does Toxocara Infection/Exposure Associate with Multiple Sclerosis-Risk?
title_full_unstemmed “Begging the Question”—Does Toxocara Infection/Exposure Associate with Multiple Sclerosis-Risk?
title_short “Begging the Question”—Does Toxocara Infection/Exposure Associate with Multiple Sclerosis-Risk?
title_sort “begging the question”—does toxocara infection/exposure associate with multiple sclerosis-risk?
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7696196/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33187271
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens9110938
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