#toxoplasma

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Toxoplasma

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Estimated to infect around 30% of people worldwide, Toxoplasma gondii is a widespread parasite with a peculiar life cycle: it reproduces sexually only in its main hosts, wild and domestic cats, but can also infect and replicate inside other species, including humans. The ensuing disease, toxoplasmosis, can cause flu-like symptoms before settling in as a generally symptomless chronic condition, although it becomes more dangerous during pregnancy and for patients with weakened immunity. Toxoplasma’s superpower is its ability to hijack the immune system, infecting macrophages, which normally gobble up pathogens, then altering their behaviour. Infection with Toxoplasma (pictured, in red), changes gene expression inside macrophages (in green, with nuclei in blue), reprogramming them to become more mobile, so they themselves help to spread the parasites. Recent research revealed that Toxoplasma uses a protein called GRA28 to re-organise DNA in the macrophages’ nuclei, suggesting a new target for scientists investigating potential treatments.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

Image from work by Arne L Ten Hoeve and Laurence Braun, and colleagues

Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

Image copyright held by the original authors

Research published in Cell Host Microbe, November 2022

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[currentsinbiology]

Offspring may inherit legacy of their father's Toxoplasma infection

Australian researchers have revealed for the first time that males infected with the Toxoplasma parasite can impact their offspring's brain health and behaviour.

Studying mice infected with the common parasite Toxoplasma, the team discovered that sperm of infected fathers carried an altered 'epigenetic' signature which impacted the brains of resulting offspring. Molecules in the sperm called 'small RNA' appeared to influence the offspring's brain development and behaviour.

[neurosciencenews]

Is the brain parasite Toxoplasma manipulating your behavior, or is your immune system to blame?

Immune system response to chronic infection may be more directly to blame for health and behavioral changes associated with Toxoplasma gondii infections.