2018 CVM News: Infection with Toxoplasma gondii may lead to Alzheimer’s

Abstract

This news item from Science@CornellVet is about: Parasitic infections can be a nightmare, especially when they interfere with your breathing, eyesight, or digestive tract. But some parasites cause no symptoms in most people with a working immune system. Toxoplasma gondii (or Toxo for short) is one of them, and according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) sixty million people in the United States may be infected with it. This parasite eventually ends up in the brain, but no one knows how it affects the brain cells or the brain connections of healthy humans. Dr. Margaret Bynoe, professor of immunology in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, led a study published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation to determine the effect of chronic Toxo infection on the brains of healthy mice.