Toxoplasmosis News and Research

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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.

Impax sells U.S. rights to Daraprim brand for $55 million to Turing Pharmaceuticals

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.

10 Aug 2015

Turing Pharmaceuticals acquires rights to market Daraprim (pyrimethamine) in the U.S.

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.

10 Aug 2015

Malaria parasite protein essential for parasite invasion into red blood cells

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.

26 Jun 2015

Study reveals how immune cells are programmed to repair or protect the body

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.

10 Jun 2015

Penn, UGA scientists awarded new contract to develop genome database for microbial pathogens

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.

18 Dec 2014

Fogarty receives three grants for research focused on biodiversity conservation

In addition to diseases for which there are ineffective or no cures, key pathogens are becoming increasingly drug-resistant.

10 Sep 2014

Discovery opens new pathways for treatment of toxoplasmosis and malaria

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.

3 Jan 2014

Atorvastatin drug plus zoledronic acid may help treat toxoplasmosis

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.

18 Oct 2013

Toxoplasma infection makes mice fearless

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.

19 Sep 2013

Research sheds light on malaria-related parasite's transition from acute to chronic stage

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.

10 Apr 2013

Combination of two environmental factors contributes to schizophrenia

The interplay between an infection during pregnancy and stress in puberty plays a key role in the development of schizophrenia, as behaviourists from ETH Zurich demonstrate in a mouse model. However, there is no need to panic.

2 Mar 2013

Stem cell line could also advance research into liver cancers, cystic fibrosis

Chronic or acute, liver failure can be deadly. Toxins take over, the skin turns yellow and higher brain function slows. "There is no effective therapy at the moment to deal with the toxins that build up in your body," said Neil Talbot, a Research Animal Scientist for the USDA Agricultural Research Service. "Their only option now is to transplant a liver."

1 Mar 2013

Researchers identify signaling pathway used by malarial parasites to destroy host cells

One of the most insidious ways that parasitic diseases such as malaria and toxoplasmosis wreak their havoc is by hijacking their host's natural cellular processes, turning self against self.

18 Jan 2013

Boston College professor to research into new drugs that can prevent onset of toxoplasmosis

The American Cancer Society has awarded a four-year, $720,000 grant to Boston College Associate Professor of Biology Marc-Jan Gubbels for research into potential new drugs that can prevent the onset of toxoplasmosis in cancer patients with weakened immune systems.

10 Dec 2012

Study demonstrates how parasites enter the brain to influence its host

Toxoplasma is a common 'cat parasite', and has previously been in the spotlight owing to its observed effect on risk-taking and other human behaviours. To some extent, it has also been associated with mental illness. A study led by researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now demonstrates for the first time how the parasite enters the brain to influence its host.

7 Dec 2012

Toxoplasmosis linked to greater schizophrenia severity

Schizophrenia patients infected with Toxoplasma gondii have more severe symptomatology than those without the infection, researchers report.

6 Nov 2012

CUMC researchers develop first true mouse model of typhoid infection

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have created the first true mouse model of typhoid infection. The development promises to advance the study of typhoid and the creation of new vaccines against the infection, which remains a major health threat in developing countries.

26 Oct 2012

Antisense therapy shows promise in treating toxoplasmosis

A targeted approach to treating toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease, shows early promise in test-tube and animal studies, where it prevented the parasites from making selected proteins. When tested in newly infected mice, it reduced the number of viable parasites by more than 90 percent, researchers from the University of Chicago Medicine report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

14 Aug 2012

Health system changes move forward

Press reports detail the steps that might happen next in terms of the health law's implementation as well as what the decision might mean for consumers.

30 Jun 2012

Scientists identify which T. gondii strains are linked with severe illness in U.S. infants

Scientists have identified which strains of the Toxoplasma gondii parasite, the cause of toxoplasmosis, are most strongly associated with premature births and severe birth defects in the United States.

16 Apr 2012