Toxoplasma gondii: Induction of toxoplasmic encephalitis in mice with chronic infection by inoculation of a murine leukemia virus inducing immunodeficiency

Infection with the avirulent Fukaya strain of Toxoplasma gondii induced few inflammatory responses in the brain of C57BL/6 mice. When mice with chronic infection with the Fukaya strain were challenged with murine leukemia virus (MuLV) LP-BM5, which is known to induce a remarkable immunodeficiency in mice, those mice suffered from a severe encephalitis. Infiltration of mononuclear cells was remarkable in both meninges and parenchyma in those mice. Numerous sites of acute focal inflammation were noted in the brain and the presence of tachyzoites and Toxoplasma antigens was demonstrable in those areas by immunoperoxidase staining using rabbit anti-Toxoplasma IgG antibodies. All mice infected with both T. gondii and LP-BM5 MuLV died from 9 to 14 weeks after the virus infection, whereas no mice died in the infection with either T. gondii or the virus alone. Spleen cells from the mice with coinfection failed to respond to both T cell (Con A) and B cell mitogens (LPS) in vitro in contrast to the cells from mice infected with T. gondii alone that responded to those mitogens just as cells from normal mice did. Mice chronically infected with T. gondii and challenged with LP-BM5 MuLV appears to provide a good animal model of toxoplasmic encephalitis which is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in AIDS patients.