Pentraxin 3 Levels Reflect Inflammatory and Parasitic Activity in Human Visceral Leishmaniasis
, Milena Xavier Silva Barbosa 4,5, Samuel Ricarte de Aquino 2,6, Anderson da Costa Armstrong 2, Carlos Dornels Freire de Souza 1,5 and Rodrigo Feliciano Carmo 1,4,5,*
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe study investigates the association between plasma PTX3 levels, parasite load, and PTX3 gene polymorphisms (rs1840680 and rs2305619) in 24 patients with VL. The authors find a positive correlation with parasitic load and cytokines involved in both pro- and anti-inflammatory responses. The manuscript is well written, and the hypothesis, scope, results and discussion are easy to follow, and some potential limitations are also mentioned by the authors.
Minor comment
I would like read more on the timeline of the levels of acute phase proteins like PTX3, once the trigger is resolved and a comment on the timing of PTX3 assay after patient treatment.
Author Response
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Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors1.- Do you have any reazon for the long time to colect the samples. It was 5 years for 35 patients?'
2.- Do you have any reazon for the aplication of different treatment.??
3.- Do you have any reazon to use different methods for diagnosis
4.- Do you know which species of Leishmania are producing the diseases in the studied patients??
Author Response
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Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsMinor comments:
Bibliographic references:
Check that references 1 and 2 are correct, as the data reported do not always appear in these articles or are not exactly the same.
L.54: The numbers reported do not appear to be exactly the same as those indicated in the publication, and some of the data mentioned in the manuscript do not appear in this publication.
L.58: It should be verified that reference 5 is appropriate.
L.73: It should be verified that reference 17 is appropriate.
Materials and methods
- 55-56: It is stated that “diagnosis is based on parasitological confirmation by bone marrow or spleen aspiration, molecular detection by qPCR, and serological tests such as rK39 or ELISA.” Is parasitological confirmation on bone marrow or spleen samples performed by microscopy? And are molecular detection by qPCR and serological tests such as rK39 or ELISA performed from peripheral blood? Perhaps it should be specified at least once in the text that this is an rk39 immuno-Chromatographic Test (ICT).
L.102: Was the standard deviation of 1.24 ng/ml determined from reference 15? Because the value indicated is slightly different from that in this article.
Main comment:
L.228 (and L.297): perhaps temper, as the results indicate that the difference was not significant (p=0.07). Perhaps indicate in the materials and methods how long after treatment the patients were sampled after treatment to detect PTX3. Was it after 12 months or less? If it was less (soon after treatment – thus the result will depend on the treatment and its duration if the PTX3 measurement is performed shortly after the end of treatment), the patient may have started to feel better, but did the parasite load decrease enough for the inflammation markers to decrease as well? This could explain the small significant difference, which might have been greater if the sample had been analyzed a longer time after treatment. Was the parasite load measured after treatment?
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
