Detection of Toxoplasma Antibodies and TNF-α in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Treated with Methotrexate

This study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence rate of toxoplasmosis among 294 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients treated with methotrexate (MTX), 50 RA patients without treatment and 50 samples as healthy control. Blood samples were collected and the presence of T.gondiiIgG and IgM antibodies was determined by using Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) was also estimated in serum of all subjects by using ELISA method too. The seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis IgM and IgG in RA+MTX was 60(20.408%), and 98(33.33%), in RA patients 4(8%), and 18(36%) while, it was 2(24%), 6(12%) in healthy group. Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) was also estimated in serum of all subjects by using ELISA method too. The mean levels of TNF-α in seropositive anti-Toxoplasma IgM and IgG of RA+MTX patients were 3.781 pg/ml ± 0.571) and (36.98 pg/ml ± 0.58), in RA patients (25.404 pg/ml ± 1.748) and (40.12 pg/ml ± 1.7) while, they were (5.04 pg/ml ± 0.643) and (10.7 pg/ml ± 1.7) in healthy group. The results showed significant difference (P 0.05) was found between treated and untreated patients.