Is Toxoplasma gondii a potential risk for traffic accidents in Turkey?

Yereli, Kor; Balcıoğlu, İbrahim; Özbilgin, Ahmet

doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2005.11.002

Cited by 92 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Latent T. gondii infection in the human host may, furthermore, in a small number of cases, have substantial health implications. Consistent with a possible impairment in psychomotor performance and/or enhanced risk-taking personality profiles, individuals with latent toxoplasmosis have been reported to be at a 2.65 times increased risk to be involved in a traffic accident relative to the general population (Flegr et al, 2002), a result subsequently replicated by other groups (Flegr et al, 2009;Kocazeybeka et al, 2009;Yereli et al, 2006). Another recent study, albeit significant only in a subset with lower socioeconomic status, linked T. gondii seropositivity with workplace accidents (Alvarado-Esquivel et al, 2012).…”

Section: Current Evidence For T Gondii Manipulation Of Intermediate mentioning

confidence: 87%

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

Webster

Kaushik

Bristow

et al. 2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

147

104

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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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Section: Current Evidence For T Gondii Manipulation Of Intermediate mentioning

confidence: 87%

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

Webster

Kaushik

Bristow

et al. 2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

147

104

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The parasite T. gondii has received increasing attention in the last years especially due to behavioral and neurological changes observed in rodents and humans [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][26][27][28][29][30]. Prompted on revealing the mechanisms used by the parasite to contribute to neurological and psychiatric disorders, research focused mainly on pathological changes in the brain affected by the infection.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Interestingly, subtle motor impairment, in the form of prolonged reaction time, was reported in seropositive but otherwise healthy individuals [17,[23][24][25]. Explained initially as a consequence of impaired long-term concentration ability, the psychomotor defi cits might also refl ect subclinical spinal cord dysfunctions due to latent toxoplasmosis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spinal cord pathology in chronic experimentalToxoplasma gondiiinfection

Möhle¹,

Parlog²,

Pahnke³

et al. 2014

European Journal of Microbiology and Immunology

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Infection with the protozoan Toxoplasma (T.) gondii causes chronic infection of the central nervous system and can lead to lifethreatening encephalomyelitis in immunocompromised patients. While infection with T. gondii has long time been considered asymptomatic in immunocompetent hosts, this view is challenged by recent reports describing links between seropositivity and behavioral alterations.However, past and current researches are mainly focused on the brain during Toxoplasma encephalitis, neglecting the spinal cord as a key structure conveying brain signals into motion. Therefore, our study aimed to fill the gap and describes the spinal cord pathology in an experimental murine model of toxoplasmosis.In the spinal cord, we found distinct histopathological changes, inflammatory foci and T. gondii cysts similar to the brain. Furthermore, the recruitment of immune cells from the periphery was detected. Moreover, resident microglia as well as recruited monocytes displayed an increased MHC classes I and II expression. Additionally, the expression of pro-and anti-inflammatory cytokines was enhanced in the brain as well as in the spinal cord. In summary, the pathology observed in the spinal cord was similar to the previously described changes in the brain during the infection.This study provides the first detailed description of histopathological and immunological alterations due to experimental T. gondii induced myelitis in mice. Thus, our comparison raises awareness of the importance of the spinal cord in chronic T. gondii infection.

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“…The largest performance decrease in the test occurred in RhD negative subjects while the performance of RhD-positive heterozygotes was not influenced by the infection (Flegr et al, 2010;Novotná et al, 2008). The impaired psychomotor performance of infected subjects can explain the higher risk of traffic accidents and work accidents observed in four retrospective studies (Alvarado-Esquivel et al, 2012;Flegr et al, 2002;Kocazeybek et al, 2009;Yereli et al, 2006) and one prospective study (Flegr et al, 2009). The risk of traffic accident is again increased in RhD-negative drivers (Flegr et al, 2009).…”

Section: Influence Of Latent Toxoplasmosis On Human Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 96%

Influence of latentToxoplasmainfection on human personality, physiology and morphology: pros and cons of theToxoplasma–human model in studying the manipulation hypothesis

Flegr

2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

211

156

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Toxoplasma as the model organism for studying the parasite manipulation hypothesisToxoplasma gondii is a parasitic protozoan whose effects on human behaviour, personality and other phenotypic traits have been studied most thoroughly, often in the context of the manipulation theory, the theory suggesting that many parasites change the phenotype of their host to increase their chances of transmission to a new host by, for example, predation. There are various reasons why this particular protozoon has become a favoured model for evolutionary parasitologists, biologists and also psychiatrists. First of all, Toxoplasma is a very common parasite both in developed and developing countries, and some forms of diseases caused by Toxoplasma infection have very serious impacts on human health; taken together, all forms of toxoplasmosis are a serious socio-economic burdens throughout the world (Pappas et al., 2009;Torgerson and Macpherson, 2011). It is also important to note that the study of the influence of toxoplasmosis on the behaviour of laboratory animals has a very long tradition; this includes a series of about 20 studies that started in the laboratory of William M. Hudtchison in the early 1980s, followed by studies by Joanne P. Webster and Manuel Berdoy in the 1990s, which were succeeded by several other teams (for reviews, see Skallová et al., 2006;Webster, 2007;Webster and McConkey, 2010).Toxoplasma is an excellent model for studying the manipulation hypothesis as it is trophically transmitted from an intermediate to a definitive host by predation. In contrast to behavioural patterns induced by directly or, more commonly, sexually transmitted parasites, the behavioural patterns induced by a trophically transmitted parasite are relatively easy to recognize (Parker et al., 2009). For example, in a sexually transmitted parasite, the parasite's and the host's genes have similar interests: they both 'try' to program the host to increase the probability of host reproduction. In contrast, the interests of the host and its trophically transmitted parasite radically differ. The intermediate host, e.g. the mouse, needs to survive (and reproduce) for as long as possible while the parasite, e.g. Toxoplasma, 'wants' the definitive host (here, a cat) to kill and SUMMARY The parasitic protozoan Toxoplasma gondii infects about one-third of the population of developed countries. The life-long presence of dormant stages of this parasite in the brain and muscular tissues of infected humans is usually considered asymptomatic from the clinical point of view. In the past 20years, research performed mostly on military personnel, university students, pregnant women and blood donors has shown that this ʻasymptomaticʼ disease has a large influence on various aspects of human life. Toxoplasma-infected subjects differ from uninfected controls in the personality profile estimated with two versions of Cattellʼs 16PF, Cloningerʼs TCI and Big Five questionnaires. Most of these differences increase with the length of time since the onset of infe...

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Is Toxoplasma gondii a potential risk for traffic accidents in Turkey?

Cited by 92 publications

References 11 publications

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

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

Spinal cord pathology in chronic experimentalToxoplasma gondiiinfection

Influence of latentToxoplasmainfection on human personality, physiology and morphology: pros and cons of theToxoplasma–human model in studying the manipulation hypothesis

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