Background: The Ibizan Hound is a canine breed native to the Mediterranean region, where leishmaniasis is an endemic zoonosis. Several studies indicate a low prevalence of this disease in Ibizan hound dogs, whereas other canine breeds present a high prevalence. However, the molecular underlaying mechanisms yet remains unknown.
Methods: In this study, we analyze the haplotypes of genes encode cytokines related to immune response of Leishmania infantum infection in twenty-four Boxer and twentyfour Ibizan hound apparently healthy using CanineHD DNA Analysis BeadChip including 165,480 mapped positions.
Results: The results show that haplotypes of genes encoding Interleukin 6 (IL6) and Interferon gamma (IFNG) are related to Interferon gamma (IFN-γ), and Interleukins (IL) 2 and 18 serum levels. Our results indicate that the regulation of immune response is different in the two canine breeds analyzed and are related to the haplotype compositions of the genes encoding these cytokines.
Conclusions: Haplotypes in the IFNG and IL6 genes have been correlated to serum levels of IFN-γ, IL-2 and IL-18, and moderate effect on IL8 haplotype correlated to IL-8 and IL-18 serum levels has been found. The results indicate that the resistance to L. infantum infection could be a consequence of certain haplotypes with a high frequency in the Ibizan Hound dog breed, while susceptibility to the disease would be related to other specific haplotypes, with high frequency in Boxer. Future studies are needed to elucidate whether these differences and haplotypes are related to different phenotypes in immune response and expression gene regulation to L. infantum infections in dogs and its possible application of new treatments and vaccines.