Immunological Study of Patients Infected with Entamoeba histolytica in Al-Najaf Province

Abstract

Protozoa  infections represent a major health burden in the developing world and contribute significantly to morbidity and mortality. Entamoeba histolytica is among the most common intestinal parasites, causing many pathological symptoms that may develop into amoebic abscesses in different regions in the body and Due to the importance of this parasite, the current study was conducted to find out the effect of the parasite on the immune responses of the patients. Serum was collected from 520 patients and  20  healthy volunteers. The percentage of parasite infection in females was 51.43%, which is slightly higher than that of males. IL-11 , IL-15 and adiponectin levels in the serum were estimated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay .  IL-11 , IL-15 levels were significantly higher in patients compared to that of healthy subjects , While a significant decrease in the concentration of adiponectin was observed in patients compared to healthy subjects. The correlations between the interleukins under study were also studied. The results showed a positive correlation between Interleukin 11.15, with a significant difference of 0.000 at the significance level of 0.01.