Toxoplasmosis as a cause for behaviour disorders - overview  of evidence and mechanisms

Fekadu, Abebaw; Shibre, Teshome; Cleare, Anthony J.

doi:10.14411/fp.2010.013

Cited by 132 publications

(115 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Despite the considerable research interest in the association between latent toxoplasmosis and schizophrenia, comparatively little research has investigated associations between latent toxoplasmosis and depression (Fekadu et al 2010), even though in 2014 an estimated 15.7 million adults in the United States (18 years and older) had at least one major depressive episode in the past year (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2014).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

No association between current depression and latent toxoplasmosis in adults

et al. 2016

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Changes in behaviour and cognition have been associated with latent infection from the apicomplexan protozoan Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908) in both animal and human studies. Further, neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia have also been associated with latent toxoplasmosis. Previously, we found no association between T. gondii immunoglobulin G antibody (IgG) seropositivity and depression in human adults between the ages of 20 and 39 years (n = 1 846) in a sample representative of the United States collected by the Centers for Disease Control as part of a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from three datasets collected between 1999-2004. In the present study, we used NHANES data collected between 2009 and 2012 that included subjects aged 20 to 80 years (n = 5 487) and used the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) to assess depression with the overall aim of testing the stability of the results of the prior study. In the current study, the seroprevalence of T. gondii was 13%. The percentage of subjects reporting clinical levels of depression assessed with the PHQ-9 was 8%. As before, we found no association between T. gondii IgG seroprevalence and depression (OR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.81-1.25; p = 0.944) while controlling for sex, educational attainment, race-ethnicity, age, poverty-to-income ratio and cigarette smoking. We also found no positive associations between anti-T. gondii antibody titre and depression (OR = 1.00, 95% CI = 0.96-1.06; p = 0.868). Moreover, we found no association between T. gondii seroprevalence or antibody titre and suicidal ideation (seroprevalence: OR = 1.22, 95% CI = .85-1.75; p = 0.277, titre: OR = 1.05, 95% CI = 0.98-1.14; p = 0.177). Defining depression to also include subjects currently taking antidepressant medication even with non-elevated questionnaires did not find evidence of a positive association between latent toxoplasmosis and depression. In the present study, neither T. gondii seroprevalence nor anti-T. gondii antibody titre was positively associated with depression or suicidal ideation among subjects aged 20 to 80 years.

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confidence: 99%

No association between current depression and latent toxoplasmosis in adults

et al. 2016

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“…In vitro studies that mimic an immunocompromised state have shown that the conversion occurs within 1 week regardless of the age of the brain cysts (5). In immunocompetent hosts, the presence of cysts caused by T. gondii (referred to here as "T. gondii cysts") in the brain seems to be associated with various neurological disorders (27), including cryptogenic epilepsy (37), migraine (25), schizophrenia (38), Malloret meningitis (26), and affective (36) and behavioral (11) disorders.…”

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confidence: 99%

Significant Reduction of Brain Cysts Caused by Toxoplasma gondii after Treatment with Spiramycin Coadministered with Metronidazole in a Mouse Model of Chronic Toxoplasmosis

Chew

Segarra

Ambu

et al. 2012

Antimicrob Agents Chemother

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Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite that generates latent cysts in the brain; reactivation of these cysts may lead to fatal toxoplasmic encephalitis, for which treatment remains unsuccessful. We assessed spiramycin pharmacokinetics coadministered with metronidazole, the eradication of brain cysts and the in vitro reactivation. Male BALB/c mice were fed 1,000 tachyzoites orally to develop chronic toxoplasmosis. Four weeks later, infected mice underwent different treatments: (i) infected untreated mice (n ‫؍‬ 9), which received vehicle only; (ii) a spiramycin-only group (n ‫؍‬ 9), 400 mg/kg daily for 7 days; (iii) a metronidazole-only group (n ‫؍‬ 9), 500 mg/kg daily for 7 days; and (iv) a combination group (n ‫؍‬ 9), which received both spiramycin (400 mg/kg) and metronidazole (500 mg/kg) daily for 7 days. An uninfected control group (n ‫؍‬ 10) was administered vehicle only. After treatment, the brain cysts were counted, brain homogenates were cultured in confluent Vero cells, and cysts and tachyzoites were counted after 1 week. Separately, pharmacokinetic profiles (plasma and brain) were assessed after a single dose of spiramycin (400

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“…T. gondii, a neurotrophic parasite, plays a role in the development of schizophrenia and causes behavioral changes, suicide attempts, and neuropathological degenerations in the brain tissue [53][54][55][56]74]. T. gondii has a role in the development of behavioral disorders via changes in neuroimmunomodulation and neurotransmission, yet pathophysiological mechanisms are not fully understood by scientists [57,58].…”

Section: Behavioral Changes and Toxoplasmosismentioning

confidence: 99%

Toxoplasmosis and Public Health Genomics

Oymak¹,

Merve²,

Sevilay³

et al. 2017

Toxoplasmosis

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Toxoplasma gondii infection generally causes flu-like symptoms in healthy individuals; however, immunosuppression of the infected individual causes reactivation of the pathogen to its active form and relapse of the toxoplasmosis. Today it is known that toxoplasmosis triggers psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia as well as behavioral changes such as suicide attempts. Although dermatological manifestations are very rare, the dermatological lesions are not unique. In addition, previous toxoplasma infection also causes congenital infections because of placental infection and causes birth defects and spontaneous abortion. T. gondii strains are mainly divided into three main clonal lineages, yet higher recombination rate causes unusual population structure and heterogeneous distribution of the pathogen. Both genetic variations, of the pathogen and the patients, are important for virulence property and success of the therapies. The scientist focuses on the genetic variations of the pathogens and individuals to achieve effective treatment and developed tailor-made medicines. Thus, understanding the molecular basis of the disease and the link of molecular mechanism with host immunity is important to fully know the disease and related disorders. In this chapter, we would like to evaluate the current knowledge on genetic, molecular characteristics of toxoplasmosis in view of public health genomics.

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Toxoplasmosis as a cause for behaviour disorders - overview of evidence and mechanisms

Cited by 132 publications

References 57 publications

No association between current depression and latent toxoplasmosis in adults

No association between current depression and latent toxoplasmosis in adults

Significant Reduction of Brain Cysts Caused by Toxoplasma gondii after Treatment with Spiramycin Coadministered with Metronidazole in a Mouse Model of Chronic Toxoplasmosis

Toxoplasmosis and Public Health Genomics

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