CLINICAL APPLICATIONS OF PARAOXONASE-1 IN DOMESTIC ANIMALS: BEYOND CONVENTIONAL INFLAMMATORY MARKERS

Inflammation and oxidative stress frequently occur in domestic animals. The diagnosis and monitoring of inflammatory and oxidative conditions are based on markers that are so far considered accurate but may lack specificity and prognostic utility. In the last years’ research, interest has grown about the role of Paraoxonase-1 (PON-1) in the pathogenesis and diagnosis of many diseases characterized by inflammation and/or oxidative stress, both in human and veterinary medicine. In veterinary species, PON-1 measurement is to date primarily restricted to the research field and has not been yet undertaken in the routine clinical field. However, recent research has highlighted promising utility in many clinical contexts. Since accurate and precise spectrophotometrical assays validated in many species are now available and proved to be cheap, rapid and automated, its measurement could easily be included in routine chemistry panel in the near future. Therefore, the aim of my research was focused on the evaluation of the usefulness of PON-1 as a diagnostic and prognostic marker in different conditions characterized by inflammation and/or oxidative stress in different veterinary species. The results collected in the different studies described in this thesis provided further insights about the possible utility of PON-1 as a biomarker in veterinary clinical pathology. We confirmed the role of PON-1 as a marker of systemic inflammatory response syndrome, possibly associated with sepsis in horses and dogs, and its usefulness as a prognostic marker in these contexts. Furthermore, in dogs we confirmed its usefulness as a marker of disease severity and its possible applications as a tool for clinical decision or detection of subclinical disease. As regards cats and pigs, results about its usefulness are still preliminary and deserve further investigation with a wider and more standardized caseload. On the contrary, we demonstrated the usefulness of PON-1 as an ancillary test for clinical decisions or to address further testing in cattle with bovine respiratory disease.