The ‘Crazy Cat Person’ Parasite Could Help Treat Degenerating Brains
Infection with Toxoplasma gondii has unexpectedly protective effects in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease
If you live in the United States, there’s a decent chance you carry the brain parasite Toxoplasma gondii. (Over 40 million Americans do.) You might know this protozoan as “Toxo” or the “crazy cat person” parasite, uncomfortably named for its potential connection to schizophrenia development and because of the completely unsupported idea that infection makes people love cats. Infection can be deadly for a very small subset of people, but Toxo’s unique ability to coexist with healthy hosts is shifting the way some scientists view parasitic infection.
While some are focused on fighting these invaders, others think we might have a lot to learn from them. Animal models of neurological disease and injury suggest Toxo may actually help protect the brain, offering clues about how to treat conditions like Alzheimer’s in humans. Cutting-edge methods like the use of tailored CRISPR libraries to determine the importance of certain genes and proteins during an active infection and high-resolution imaging of parasite-neuron interactions could be crucial tools for unraveling the mechanisms of Toxo’s protective effects.
