Toxoplasmosis is considered to be the third leading cause of death attributed to foodborne illness in the United States. More than 60 million men, women, and children in the U.S. carry the Toxoplasma parasite, but very few have symptoms because the immune system usually keeps the parasite from causing illness. However, women newly infected with Toxoplasma during pregnancy and anyone with a compromised immune system should be aware that toxoplasmosis can have severe consequences for them.
Zoonotic diseases are diseases or infections which are naturally transmissible from animals to humans, as defined in the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code.
The Journal of Parasitology – Many people carry a single-celled parasite known as Toxoplasma gondii but never feel its effects.
After three years and 300 patients, George Mason University researchers have proof that their early-detection urine test for Lyme disease works.
In a study prompted in part by suggestions from people with mental illness, Johns Hopkins researchers found that a history of Candida yeast infections was more common in a group of men with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder than in those without these disorders, and that women with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder who tested positive for Candida performed worse on a standard memory test than women with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder who had no evidence of past infection.
In recent years, a common parasitic infection - as many as a third of the world's population may have it - has been linked to a range of psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, as well as behavioral dysregulation such as suicide attempts and car accidents.
A new study has shown that people who have a psychiatric condition called intermittent explosive disorder (IED) are twice as likely to have been exposed to toxoplasma gondii, the parasite found in cat feces and undercooked meat.
Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative treatments for serious diseases and conditions, today emphasizes the continued availability of Daraprim and cautions healthcare providers of proposed alternatives to Daraprim.
A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that some forms of the single celled parasites, Trypanosoma brucei and Toxoplasma gondii behave like cancer cells.
Toxoplasma gondii is a common parasite which causes the development of fatal encephalosis or pneumonia in immunodeficient patients under treatment of AIDS or cancer.
Toxoplasma gondii is a common parasite which causes the development of fatal encephalosis or pneumonia in immunodeficient patients under treatment of AIDS or cancer. Pregnant women who are infected may suffer a miscarriage or the newborn child may suffer from a congenital disease. Currently, a toxoplasma vaccine for humans is not available. Using experimental animals such as mice, basic research for developing an inactivated vaccine is underway.
Impax Laboratories, Inc. today announced that it has sold its U.S. rights to the Daraprim brand to Turing Pharmaceuticals AG for approximately $55 million.
Turing Pharmaceuticals AG today announced that it has acquired the exclusive rights to market Daraprim (pyrimethamine) in the U.S. from Impax Laboratories, Inc. The acquisition by Turing is part of a strategic effort focused on treatments for toxoplasmosis and other serious infectious diseases. The company also announced plans to invest in the development of new drug candidates for toxoplasmosis.
A new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health finds that a malaria parasite protein called calcineurin is essential for parasite invasion into red blood cells. Human calcineurin is already a proven target for drugs treating other illnesses including adult rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, and the new findings suggest that parasite calcineurin should be a focus for the development of new antimalarial drugs.
An unexpected finding by an international team of scientists based at The University of Manchester and National Institutes of Health in America has shed new light on how immune cells are programmed to either repair or protect the body.
At the turn of the millennium, the cost to sequence a single human genome exceeded $50 million, and the process took a decade to complete. Microbes have genomes, too, and the first reference genome for a malaria parasite was completed in 2002 at a cost of roughly $15 million. But today researchers can sequence a genome in a single afternoon for just a few thousand dollars. Related technologies make it possible to capture information about all genes in the genome, in all tissues, from multiple individuals.
In addition to diseases for which there are ineffective or no cures, key pathogens are becoming increasingly drug-resistant.
A newly identified protein and other proteins it interacts with could become effective targets for new drugs to control the parasite that cause toxoplasmosis, researchers led by investigators at Indiana University School of Medicine have reported.
Researchers at the University of Georgia have discovered that a combination of two commonly prescribed drugs used to treat high cholesterol and osteoporosis may serve as the foundation of a new treatment for toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection caused by the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii. They published their findings recently in PLOS Pathogens.
The Toxoplasma parasite can be deadly, causing spontaneous abortion in pregnant women or killing immune-compromised patients, but it has even stranger effects in mice.
A new discovery about the malaria-related parasite Toxoplasma gondii -- which can threaten babies, AIDS patients, the elderly and others with weakened immune function -- may help solve the mystery of how this single-celled parasite establishes life-long infections in people.