DALLAS: Toxoplasma gondii, a protozoan parasite about five microns long, infects a third of the world’s population. Ingested via undercooked meat or unwashed vegetables, the parasite infects 15-30 percent of the US population. In France and Brazil, up to 80 percent of the population has the infection.
Particularly dangerous during pregnancy — infection in pregnant women can cause serious congenital defects and even death of the fetus — this chronic infection has two components: the unicellular parasite, and inflammation of tissues it causes.
Working on mice (like all mammals, a natural host for this parasite), a University of California, Riverside team of biomedical scientists reports that Toxoplasma infection leads to a disruption of neurotransmitters in the brain and postulates that it triggers neurological disease in those already predisposed to such a disease…