Article
Effects of Toxoplasma gondii infection on cognition, symptoms, and response to digital cognitive training in schizophrenia
Registro en:
GUIMARÃES, Anna Luiza et al. Effects of Toxoplasma gondii infection on cognition, symptoms, and response to digital cognitive training in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia, v. 8, n. 1, 104, 2022. doi: 10.1038/s41537-022-00292-2.
2754-6993
Autor
Guimarães, Anna Luiza
Coelho, David Richer Araujo
Scoriels, Linda
Mambrini, Juliana
Antonelli, Lis Ribeiro do Valle
Henriques, Priscilla
Carvalho, Andréa Teixeira de
Martins Filho, Olindo Assis
Mineo, José
Bahia-Oliveira, Lilian
Panizzutti, Rogério
Resumen
Studies indicate that neuroscience-informed digital cognitive training can remediate cognitive impairments in schizophrenia, but the factors contributing to these deficits and response to treatment remain unclear. Toxoplasma gondii is a neuroinvasive parasite linked to cognitive decline that also presents a higher prevalence in schizophrenia. Here, we compared the cognition and symptom severity of IgG seropositive (TOXO+; n = 25) and seronegative (TOXO-; n = 35) patients who participated in a randomized controlled trial of digital cognitive training. At baseline, TOXO+ subjects presented lower global cognition than TOXO- (F = 3.78, p = 0.05). Specifically, TOXO+ subjects showed worse verbal memory and learning (F = 4.48, p = 0.03), social cognition (F = 5.71, p = 0.02), and higher antibody concentrations were associated with increased negative (r = 0.42, p = 0.04) and total (r = 0.40, p = 0.04) schizophrenia symptoms. After training, the TOXO+ group showed higher adherence to the intervention (X2 = 9.31, p = 0.03), but there were no differences in changes in cognition and symptoms between groups. These findings highlight the association between seropositivity to T. gondii and deteriorated cognition and symptoms in schizophrenia. Further research is needed to assess the specific efficacy of digital cognitive training on this population.