The probable relation between Toxoplasma gondii and Parkinson's disease

Miman, Özlem; Küsbeci, Özge Yılmaz; Aktepe, Orhan Cem; Çetınkaya, Zafer

doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2010.03.057

Cited by 117 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…30 Encephalitis due to toxoplasmosis is a well-known complication of HIV infection. There are also increasing reports of neurological, psychiatric or psychomotor disorders related to "latent" toxoplasmosis, [31][32][33][34] and of a higher frequency of road traffic accidents among seropositive individuals. 35 Even if toxoplasmosis accounts for only a small fraction of these problems in the population, the global burden of disease attributable to toxoplasmosis is considerably greater than suggested by our CT data.…”

Section: Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The global burden of congenital toxoplasmosis: a systematic review

Torgerson

Mastroiacovo

2013

Bull. World Health Organ.

604

486

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Section: Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The global burden of congenital toxoplasmosis: a systematic review

Torgerson

Mastroiacovo

2013

Bull. World Health Organ.

604

486

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“…OCD symptoms in individuals infected with T. gondii have been reduced by treatment of the T. gondii infection alone (Brynska et al, 2001;Smadja et al, 1995). There are contradictory reports on the association of T. gondii with Parkinson's disease as two preliminary studies showed opposing results; Miman and colleagues found that Parkinson's disease patients were significantly more likely to be seropositive for T. gondii (P<0.01) (Miman et al, 2010a) whilst Celik and colleagues did not find a statistically significant difference (Celik et al, 2010). Parkinsonian symptoms have been reported in patients suffering from both toxoplasmosis and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and anti-T. gondii medication reduced the observed symptoms (Carrazana et al, 1989;Murakami et al, 2000).…”

Section: Toxoplasma and Neurological Disordersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toxoplasma gondii infection and behaviour – location, location, location?

McConkey

Martin

Bristow

et al. 2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

192

156

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SummaryParasite location has been proposed as an important factor in the behavioural changes observed in rodents infected with the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii. During the chronic stages of infection, encysted parasites are found in the brain but it remains unclear whether the parasite has tropism for specific brain regions. Parasite tissue cysts are found in all brain areas with some, but not all, prior studies reporting higher numbers located in the amygdala and frontal cortex. A stochastic process of parasite location does not, however, seem to explain the distinct and often subtle changes observed in rodent behaviour. One factor that could contribute to the specific changes is increased dopamine production by T. gondii. Recently, it was found that cells encysted with parasites in the brains of experimentally infected rodents have high levels of dopamine and that the parasite encodes a tyrosine hydroxylase, the rate-limiting enzyme in the synthesis of this neurotransmitter. A mechanism is proposed that could explain the behaviour changes due to parasite regulation of dopamine. This could have important implications for T. gondii infections in humans.

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“…There is also the ever growing and convincing body of evidence concerning a potential relationship linking T. gondii with that of some forms of affective and neurological disorders in humans. Correlations have been found for OCD (Miman et al, 2010b), Parkinson's disease (Miman et al, 2010a), Alzheimer's disease (Kusbeci et al, 2011), suicide (Arling et al, 2009) and bipolar disorder (Pearce et al, 2012). The most substantial body of empirical evidence gathered to date relates to the potential association between T. gondii and some cases of schizophrenia in humans.…”

Section: Current Evidence For T Gondii Manipulation Of Intermediate mentioning

confidence: 99%

Toxoplasma gondiiinfection, from predation to schizophrenia: can animal behaviour help us understand human behaviour?

Webster

Kaushik

Bristow

et al. 2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

152

110

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SummaryWe examine the role of the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii as a manipulatory parasite and question what role study of infections in its natural intermediate rodent hosts and other secondary hosts, including humans, may elucidate in terms of the epidemiology, evolution and clinical applications of infection. In particular, we focus on the potential association between T. gondii and schizophrenia. We introduce the novel term ʻT. gondii-rat manipulation-schizophrenia modelʼ and propose how future behavioural research on this model should be performed from a biological, clinical and ethically appropriate perspective.

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The probable relation between Toxoplasma gondii and Parkinson's disease

Cited by 117 publications

References 31 publications

The global burden of congenital toxoplasmosis: a systematic review

The global burden of congenital toxoplasmosis: a systematic review

Toxoplasma gondii infection and behaviour – location, location, location?

Toxoplasma gondiiinfection, from predation to schizophrenia: can animal behaviour help us understand human behaviour?

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