Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Mar 17;11(2):e02164-19.
doi: 10.1128/mBio.02164-19.

Latent Toxoplasmosis Effects on Rodents and Humans: How Much is Real and How Much is Media Hype?

Hannah J Johnson  1 , Anita A Koshy  2   3   4   5
Affiliations
Review

Latent Toxoplasmosis Effects on Rodents and Humans: How Much is Real and How Much is Media Hype?

Hannah J Johnson et al. mBio. .

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii is a ubiquitous, intracellular protozoan parasite with a broad range of intermediate hosts, including humans and rodents. In many hosts, T. gondii establishes a latent long-term infection by converting from its rapidly dividing or lytic form to its slowly replicating and encysting form. In humans and rodents, the major organ for encystment is the central nervous system (CNS), which has led many to investigate how this persistent CNS infection might influence rodent and human behavior and, more recently, neurodegenerative diseases. Given the interest in this topic, here we seek to take a global approach to the data for and against the effects of latent T. gondii on behavior and neurodegeneration and the proposed mechanisms that might underlie behavior modifications.

Keywords: Toxoplasma gondii; behavior; central nervous system infections; human; murine; neurodegeneration.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Dubey JP. 2010. Toxoplasmosis of animals and humans. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.
    1. Kim S-K, Boothroyd JC. 2005. Stage-specific expression of surface antigens by Toxoplasma gondii as a mechanism to facilitate parasite persistence. J Immunol 174:8038–8048. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.174.12.8038. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Pittman KJ, Knoll LJ. 2015. Long-term relationships: the complicated interplay between the host and the developmental stages of Toxoplasma gondii during acute and chronic infections. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 79:387–401. doi:10.1128/MMBR.00027-15. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jeffers V, Tampaki Z, Kim K, Sullivan WJ. 2018. A latent ability to persist: differentiation in Toxoplasma gondii. Cell Mol Life Sci 75:2355–2373. doi:10.1007/s00018-018-2808-x. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Salvioni A, Belloy M, Lebourg A, Bassot E, Cantaloube-Ferrieu V, Vasseur V, Blanié S, Liblau RS, Suberbielle E, Robey EA, Blanchard N. 2019. Robust control of a brain-persisting parasite through MHC I presentation by infected neurons. Cell Rep 27:3254–3268. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2019.05.051. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types