Posted on 06/19/2006 10:32:01 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
On paper, Toxoplasma gondii looks as if it ought to be the most famous parasite on earth. This single-celled pathogen infects over half the world's population, including an estimated 50 million Americans. Each of Toxoplasma's victims carries thousands of the parasites, many residing in the brain. As if that were not enough of an accomplishment, Toxoplasma is equally adept at infecting all other warm-blooded animals, as disparate as chickens and kangaroos.
Scientists are now discovering some of the secrets of Toxoplasma's success. Researchers in Sweden report that the parasite fans out through the body by manipulating mobile cells that are part of the immune system. Toxoplasma hijacks these so-called dendritic cells and makes them race around the body and ignore commands from other immune cells to commit suicide. The dendritic cells sneak the parasites into the brain and other organs, acting much like a Trojan horse.
Strategies like this one have made Toxoplasma incredibly widespread and incredibly obscure. Mention the parasite to most people and chances are you will draw a blank. Pathogens that infect far fewer people, like the Ebola and West Nile viruses, are far more famous.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
informative post
If anyone is still reading this...
Research indicates it not just makes people more personable or jealous so much as causes a heightened level of conscientiousness. Which is commonly referred to as ‘feel-good-ism’.
Toxoplasmosis could explain the mass-neurosis we refer to as liberalism.
I don't know about that. Cats seem to be unusually and inexplicably popular among frequenters of this website.
That is exactly what I have thought.
It is also believed to be a cause of schizophrenia.
This topic was posted . Thanks ConservativeMind.
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