Lung Lipidomic Alterations in Beagle Dogs Infected with Toxocara canis

Abstract

Toxocariasis, mainly caused by Toxocara canis, and to a lesser extent, Toxocara cati, is a neglected parasitic zoonosis. The mechanisms that underlie the changes in lipid metabolism of T. canis infection in Beagle dogs’ lungs remain unclear. Lipidomics is a rapidly emerging approach that enables the global profiling of lipid composition by mass spectrometry. In this study, we performed a non-targeted lipidomic analysis of the lungs of Beagle dogs infected with the roundworm T. canis using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). A total of 1197 lipid species were identified, of which 63, 88, and 157 lipid species were significantly altered at 24 h post-infection (hpi), 96 hpi, and 36 days post-infection (dpi), respectively. This global lipidomic profiling identified infection-specific lipid signatures for lung toxocariasis, and represented a comprehensive comparison between the lipid composition of dogs’ lungs in the presence and absence of T. canis infection. The potential roles of the identified lipid species in the pathogenesis of T. canis are discussed, which has important implications for better understanding the interaction mechanism between T. canis and the host lung.