Feline heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis) infection is an uncommon but clinically significant disease in Korea. A retrospective review of electronic medical records from a secondary referral animal hospital in Ulsan, Korea, identified 2 antigen-positive (1.5%) cases among 130 stray cats tested between 2019 and 2023, while no infections were detected in 298 client-owned cats. As antigen testing may yield false-negative results in cats with male-only infections, the true prevalence is likely underestimated. This report describes the clinical and echocardiographic findings of 2 infected stray cats. Case 1 involved successful long-term management of heartworm-associated respiratory disease, with the cat remaining healthy for 4 years following diagnosis. Case 2 demonstrated persistent evidence of adult heartworms and sudden death after an asymptomatic period of 1 year. Echocardiography in Case 2 revealed multiple hyperechoic double lines within the pulmonary arteries, consistent with intraluminal adult worms. These cases illustrate the diagnostic challenges and variable clinical outcomes of feline heartworm infection, emphasizing the need for increased awareness in Korea.
Dirofilaria immitis (heartworm) infections affect domestic dogs, cats, and various wild mammals with increasing incidence in temperate and tropical areas. More sensitive antibody detection methodologies are required to diagnose asymptomatic dirofilariasis with low worm burdens. Applying current transcriptomic technologies would be useful to discover potential diagnostic markers for D. immitis infection. A filarial homologue of the mammalian translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) was initially identified by screening the assembled transcriptome of D. immitis (DiTCTP). A BLAST analysis suggested that the DiTCTP gene shared the highest similarity with TCTP from Loa loa at protein level (97%). A histidine-tagged recombinant DiTCTP protein (rDiTCTP) of 40 kDa expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) showed immunoreactivity with serum from a dog experimentally infected with heartworms. Localization studies illustrated the ubiquitous presence of rDiTCTP protein in the lateral hypodermal chords, dorsal hypodermal chord, muscle, intestine, and uterus in female adult worms. Further studies on D. immitis-derived TCTP are warranted to assess whether this filarial protein could be used for a diagnostic purpose.
Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by
Molecular Discovery of Filarial Nematode DNA in an Endangered Wild Pinniped (Galapagos Sea Lion, Zalophus wollebaeki) Isabella G. Livingston, Taylor M. Gregory, Eleanor C. Hawkins, Ashley Cave, Andrea Loyola, Shelly L. Vaden, Diane Deresienski, Marjorie Riofrío‐Lazo, Gregory A. Lewbart, Diego Páez‐Rosas, Matthew Breen Ecology and Evolution.2024;[Epub] CrossRef
Development of TaqMan Quantitative PCR Assays for Duplex Detection of Dirofilaria immitis COI and Dog GAPDH from Infected Dog Blood In Young Oh, Kyung Tae Kim, Sun-Yeong Gwon, Ho Joong Sung The Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science.2019; 51(1): 64. CrossRef
Brown Spider (Loxosceles) Venom Toxins as Potential Biotools for the Development of Novel Therapeutics Daniele Chaves-Moreira, Fernando Hitomi Matsubara, Zelinda Schemczssen-Graeff, Elidiana De Bona, Vanessa Ribeiro Heidemann, Clara Guerra-Duarte, Luiza Helena Gremski, Carlos Chávez-Olórtegui, Andrea Senff-Ribeiro, Olga Meiri Chaim, Raghuvir Krishnaswamy A Toxins.2019; 11(6): 355. CrossRef
Development of Real-time PCR Assays for Detection ofDirofilaria immitisfrom Infected Dog Blood In Young Oh, Kyung Tae Kim, Jin Hyun Jun, Jae-Ho Shin, Ho Joong Sung Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science.2016; 48(2): 88. CrossRef
First
Prev
