About a third of the world’s population is chronically infected with the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggest that about 11% of the U.S. population aged 6 years and over is infected with the parasite, while in other countries the infection rate has been shown to be up to 95%.
Researchers from 16 institutions across the U.S., Canada, England, Scotland, and Australia have now analyzed genetic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data from infected individuals, and from studies in cell cultures, to link T. gondii infection with a number of brain disorders, including epilepsy, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, and even some cancers. "This study is a paradigm shifter," stated co-author Dennis Steindler, Ph.D., director of the Neuroscience and Aging Lab at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. "We now have to insert infectious disease into the equation of neurodegenerative diseases, epilepsy, and neural cancers. At the same time, we have to translate aspects of this study into preventive treatments that include everything from drugs to diet to lifestyle, in order to delay disease onset and progression."
Most people with a healthy immune system will develop no symptoms from infection with T. gondii. Individuals with compromised immune systems, however, are at risk from potentially far more serious complications of the infection that can affect the eyes, brain, and other organs. A pregnant mother who becomes infected can also pass the parasite to her unborn child, with severe, potentially fatal consequences.
Prior research has indicated that T. gondii infection in rodents and in primates can cause subtle behavior changes, including loss of the animals’ aversion to the smell of the urine of their natural predators. Some epidemiological studies in humans have linked T. gondii infection with neurological...
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