The parasitic Toxoplasma, also called a cat infection, is common in the Swedish population. Scientists have long wondered how the parasite managed to infect so many people and animals.
In order to fight infection, the various roles of immune cells in the body are very tightly regulated, but the parasite has found a way to trick the immune system.
We have now discovered a protein substance that the parasite uses to reprogram the immune system, says Arne Ten Hoff, a researcher at Stockholm University.
The parasite hijacks the identity of cells
A study showed that the parasite injects a protein substance into the nucleus of the immune cell and thus changes the identity of the cell. The parasite tricks the immune cell into thinking it is a different type of cell. This alters gene expression and immune cell behavior. The parasite causes infected immune cells, which should not normally travel in the body, to move very quickly. In this way, the parasite spreads to different organs.
This phenomenon has been described as Toxoplasma transforming immune cells into roving Trojans or “zombies” that spread the parasite.
Toxoplasma – a global parasite
Toxoplasma parasitic disease causes Toxoplasma gondii, which is probably the most common parasitic infection in humans worldwide. The World Health Organization has estimated that at least 30 percent of the world’s population are carriers of the parasite. Studies show that 15-20% of everyone living in Sweden carries the parasite.
When we get infected, mild flu-like symptoms appear that can resemble a cold. Then the disease turns into a chronic infection that, as a rule, does not produce any symptoms at all in healthy individuals. However, for people with weakened immune systems, toxoplasmosis can cause life-threatening inflammation of the brain. It can also be dangerous to the fetus.
The new study, which offers a molecular explanation for the phenomenon, also shows that the parasite is more targeted in its spread than previously thought.
Surprisingly, the parasite has succeeded in hijacking the identity of immune cells in such a clever way. We believe the findings could explain why Toxoplasma spreads so efficiently in the body when it infects humans and animals, says Professor Antonio Barragan, who led the study in collaboration with researchers from France and the United States.
Cats are important to the parasite
Cats have a special place in the life cycle of Toxoplasma. It is only in the cat The intestine is where sexual reproduction takes place. In other hosts, eg human, dog, or In birds, reproduction occurs by division of the parasite.
Photo: Koen Eijkelenboom / Unsplash
In nature, the parasite is spread mainly from rodents to cats – and vice versa. When a cat eats a rodent, it ingests the parasites that multiply in the cat’s intestines. The faeces then end up in nature again and the rodents become infected.
Humans can become infected by eating meat that contains parasites or through contact with cats, especially cat feces.
Scientific study:
Toxoplasma agonist GRA28 enhances parasite proliferation by stimulating dendritic-cell-like migratory properties in infected macrophages.And the Host cell and microbe.
Contact:
Arne Tenhoeve, Researcher at the Department of Molecular Biological Sciences, Stockholm University, [email protected]
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