Acute phase proteins and plasma lipoproteins during antimony treatment in infantile visceral leishmaniasis.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of antimony treatment on the altered lipoprotein system of four young Tunisians with visceral Leishmaniasis and to further investigate possible relationships between acute phase proteins (C-reactive protein and apolipoprotein SAA)-known to be increased in this disease-and lipid or apolipoprotein (apo) parameters measured before and throughout the treatment. A marked improvement of all investigated parameters was already observed after the first cure: the lecithin-cholesterol acyltransferase activity was the only parameter remaining deficient even at the end of the second cure. Statistical analysis reveals a significant inverse relationship between changes in C-reactive protein and changes in the plasma ratio of esterified to total cholesterol (r = -0.78; p < 0.001) as well as in plasma apoA-I concentration (r = -0.64; p < 0.01). Because no such correlation could be observed with apoSAA, results of this study suggest that the major mechanism of lowering the plasma levels of apoA-I and the plasma-cholesteryl content could be closely related to the appearance of large amounts of C-reactive protein in plasma or more likely to the process inducing the hepatic synthesis of this acute phase protein.