[Seroprevalance of Toxoplasma gondii infection and genotyping of the isolates from cancer patients in Anhui, eastern China].

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, sagl, sag2, sag3, btub, gra6, L358, pkl, 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.