#Toronto Сумасшедший кот леди Not Alone - #toxoplasmosis

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Ярослав Флегр нет псих. И все же, в течение многих лет, он подозревал, что его ум был захвачен паразитов, которые вторглись в его мозг. Так плодовитым биолог взял его научно-фантастический предчувствие в лабораторию. То, что он сейчас открывать поразит вас. Может, перевозимые домашних кошек крошечные организмы быть ползучей в наши мозги, заставляя все от автомобильных аварий с шизофренией? 

Атлантический - Кэтлин Маколайфф 



Никто не станет обвинять Ярослав Флегр быть конформистом. Себя называет "неаккуратным комод," 53-летний чешский ученый имеет созерцательный воздух кем-то по привычке в раздумье, и его до сих пор-юношеского, с квадратной челюстью лицо в обрамлении вьющихся рыжих волос, которая окружает его голову, как кольцо огня. 

Конечно мышление Flegr является раздражающе нетрадиционным. С начала 1990-х годов, он начал подозревать, что одноклеточные паразиты в семье простейших тонко манипулировать его личность, в результате чего он себя в странных, часто самоубийственных способов. И если это было возиться с его умом, рассуждал он, это был, вероятно, делает то же самое для других. 

Паразит, который выделяется кошек в их фекалиях, называется Токсоплазма (T.gondii, или Toxo для краткости) и является микроб, который вызывает токсоплазмоз-причину беременные женщины сказали, чтобы избежать ящики для мусора кошек. С 1920-х годов, врачи признали, что женщина, которая заражается во время беременности может передавать болезнь плода, в некоторых случаях приводит к серьезному повреждению мозга или смерти. Т. гондий также представляет серьезную угрозу для людей с ослабленным иммунитетом: в первые дни эпидемии СПИДа, прежде были разработаны хорошие антиретровирусные препараты, она была виновата в слабоумия, что, страдающего много пациентов в конечной стадии этого заболевания. Здоровые дети и взрослые, однако, как правило, не испытывают ничего хуже, чем короткие гриппоподобные симптомы, прежде чем быстро отбивается от простейших, которые после этого дремлет клетки-либо внутри мозга, по крайней мере, это стандартная медицинская мудрость. 

Но если Flegr правильно, "скрытая" паразит может спокойно настройки связи между нашими нейронами, изменение наш ответ на пугающие ситуации, нашей веры в других, как исходящий нас, и даже наши предпочтения для определенных запахов. И это еще не все. Он также считает, что организм способствует ДТП, самоубийств и психических расстройств, таких как шизофрения. Когда вы сложите все различные способы это может нанести вред нам, говорит Flegr, "Toxoplasma могут даже убить столько людей, как малярия, или, по крайней мере, миллион человек в год." 

Эволюционный биолог Карлова университета в Праге, Flegr проводит эту теорию в течение многих десятилетий в относительной безвестности. Потому что он борется с английского и не так много собеседник даже на своем родном языке, он редко ездит в научных конференциях. Это "может быть одной из причин, моя теория не лучше известных," говорит он. И, по его мнению, его взгляды могут пригласить глубокую оппозицию. "Существует сильное психологическое сопротивление к тому, что поведение человека может быть под влиянием какой-то глупой паразита," говорит он. "Никто не любит чувствовать себя как марионетка. Рецензенты [из моих научных работ], возможно, были оскорблены. "Еще более очевидная причина для сопротивления, конечно, является то, что понятия Flegr звучат ужасно много, как бахрома науки, прямо там с НЛО и претензий дельфинов телепатически общающихся людей. 

Но после многих лет игнорируются или со скидкой, Flegr начинает получать респектабельность. Психоделический как его требования не звучало, многие исследователи, в том числе таких крупных имен в неврологии как Стэнфорда Роберт Sapolsky, думаю, что он вполне может быть на что-то. Flegr в "исследования также проводятся, и я вижу, нет оснований сомневаться в их," Sapolsky говорит мне. Действительно, последние данные от лабораторных и британских групп Sapolsky предполагают, что паразит способен чрезвычайных махинаций. Т. гондий, сообщает Sapolsky, может превратить сильное врожденное отвращение крысы, кошкам в аттракцион, заманивая его в пасть его No. 1 хищника. Еще более удивительно то, как она делает это: организм повторно едет цепей в частях мозга, которые имеют дело с такими первобытными эмоциями, как страх, тревога, и сексуальное возбуждение. "В целом," говорит Sapolsky, "это дикий, причудливый нейробиологии." Другой академический тяжеловес, который берет Flegr серьезно это шизофрения эксперт Е. Фуллер Торри, директор Стэнли-исследовательского института медицинской, в штате Мэриленд. "Я восхищаюсь Ярослав для этого [этого исследования]," говорит он. "Очевидно, что это не политкорректно, в том смысле, что не многие лаборатории делают это. Он сделал это в основном самостоятельно, с очень небольшой поддержкой. Я думаю, что это имеет глядя на. Я считаю, это совершенно достоверными ". 

Более того, многие эксперты считают, Т. гондий может быть далеко не единственным микроскопического кукольника, способного тянуть наши струны. "Я думаю, что есть очень большое количество других примеров этого происходит у млекопитающих, с паразитами мы никогда даже не слышали о", говорит Sapolsky. 

Знакомый для большинства из нас, конечно, является вирус бешенства. На грани убийства собаки, летучей мыши или другого теплокровного хозяина, это мешает животное в ярость, одновременно переходе от нервной системы к слюне существа, гарантируя, что когда хозяева укусы, вирус будет жить в новый носитель. Но в стороне от бешенства, рассказы паразитов реквизиции поведение больших мозгом млекопитающих встречаются редко. В гораздо более распространенными жертвами паразитарные ум контроль, по крайней мере те, о которых мы знаем, рыба, ракообразные, и легионы насекомых, в соответствии с Дженис Мур, поведенческого биолог Университета штата Колорадо. "Мухи, муравьи, гусеницы, осы, вы называете его, есть грузовики с ними ведут себя странно в результате паразитов", говорит она. 

Рассмотрим Polysphincta gutfreundi, паразитический оса, что хватается за державу паука и придает крошечный яйцо в его живот.Червеобразный личинка выходит из яйца, а затем выпускает химикаты, которые подскажут паука отказаться ткачество свою знакомую спиральную паутину и вместо раскрутки своего шелковую нить на специальном шаблоне, который будет содержать кокон, в котором личинка созревает."Обладал" паук даже крючком определенную геометрическую конструкцию в сетку, маскируя кокон от хищников осы. 

Ну, что рассказывает все, как есть ....

Beware #Sushi May Affect Sex Drive - Another #Feral Cat Toxo Casualty???

Although Toxoplasma is primarily a rodent parasite, human beings are not immune. Our cohabitation with cats ensures ample opportunity for toxoplasmosis to occur through fecal contact. Since its discovery in the early 1900s, the protozoan had been widely viewed as a relatively benign passenger in humans. The only perceived threat was to patients with compromised immune systems (such as people with AIDS) and pregnant women whose fetuses are often deformed or aborted by the pathogen. It was believed that a healthy human host could control the parasite indefinitely. New evidence suggests the opposite. Through a delicate finessing of the neurotransmitters in our brains, it is us who are being controlled.  

  

How A

 Cat

Parasite 

Affects Your

Behavior,

 Mental

 Health and

 Sex Drive

By Roc Morin Sep 17 2014

Scientist Believes Raw Fish Was Source of Toxo Infection That Affects Mind 

Parasitic mind-control is common in the animal kingdom. The rabies virus produces a delirious rage in its dying host, causing the animal to infect new victims with its bite. The hairworm Spinochordodes tellinii manipulates the brains of crickets into committing suicide by leaping into water, where the worm can breed. When the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii enters a rodent, the animal’s natural fear of cat urine is reversed. The rodent becomes attracted to the odor of its predator, and when eaten, the parasite is able to spawn inside the feline’s intestines.

Dr. Jaroslav Flegr was the first to make these claims in 2002. Analyzing traffic data, the Czech parasitologist discovered that toxoplasmosis-infected drivers are 2.6 times more likely to be involved in car crashes. Flegr sees a parallel between the risk-taking behavior of infected rodents and the risk-taking behavior of the infected motorists. It was a pattern the scientist had noticed first in himself.

While attending Charles University in Prague, the usually conscientious Flegr realized that he had suddenly become bolder. The student frequently found himself crossing the street without looking, oblivious to the blaring of car horns around him. He also began openly criticizing the Communist government, at a time when dissent was a crime. It wasn't until he tested positive for toxoplasmosis as part of an unrelated research project that Flegr began to make sense of his recklessness. If the parasite could alter the behavior of rodents, he reasoned, why not humans too? 

Flegr tested his theory by administering personality inventories to toxoplasma-positive and -negative populations. In test after test, the results were consistent. Infected men were “more likely to disregard rules,” and were more “suspicious, jealous, and dogmatic.” The traits of the women were the exact opposite. They were more “warm-hearted,” “outgoing,” and “moralistic.” A further decade of research has uncovered links to a variety of conditions as far-ranging as ADHD, OCD, schizophrenia, and suicidality.

I sat down recently with Dr. Flegr at his office in Prague to discuss how a tiny parasite living inside of at least 10 percent of Americans and 30 to 50 percent of the world’s population can so profoundly alter who we are.

Why is there such a different response to infection in men and women?
Dr. Jaroslav Flegr: It’s known that men and women react in opposite ways to stress. So, it’s possible that Toxoplasma induces chronic stress, and that men and women react in opposite ways to the same effect.

It’s interesting that the characteristics of infected women are generally perceived to be positive.
When women feel stressed, they start to be friendly. They seek company. It’s the reason that we suppose that it’s nice to be infected. [Laughter] But it’s not true. It’s just a defensive strategy.

I’ve read that some women have actually wanted to become infected.
Yes, but I don't recommend it.

Have they asked you to infect them?
Sometimes I’ll get an email like that, but it’s mostly men interested in infecting their girlfriends.

Because it makes women more promiscuous?
It’s not true, actually. It’s just journalists extrapolating my discoveries. My recent research shows that it decreases the sexual drive of women.

What does it do to a man’s sex drive?
It seems that it does nothing. It is strange because there is a very a strong effect on women and no effect on men. I suppose that there are two processes that cancel each other out. One is they are ill, so that decreases sexual drive; the other is that Toxoplasma is known to increase the concentration of testosterone in males. So you would think that would increase the sex drive.

Are we just collateral damage in the life cycle of the parasites, or do the changes we undergo actually benefit the parasite in some way?
A few thousand years ago we were part of the life cycle of Toxoplasma. Even now a lot of people die due to tigers and lions in other parts of the world. It’s actually possible that the [parasite’s] manipulation is primarily aimed not at rodents but at apes.

Do you think that the effects of toxoplasmosis makes a human more likely to be eaten by a lion or tiger?
Yes. Several effects of toxoplasmosis really increase this risk. In our questionnaire, infected people say that they are less afraid than people who are not infected. We asked how much they are afraid of being in dark woods, for example, and they say that they are not so afraid. They also have weaker startle reactions. When infected people cross the street and a horn blows, they don’t skip away. [Laughter] It’s not a good strategy when we are endangered by tigers or lions.

If toxoplasmosis correlates with schizophrenia, OCD, and suicidality—those would all seem to be things that would isolate in an individual from the safety of their social group and make them more vulnerable to being eaten by a large cat.
It’s possible that could be the reason.

As with the rodents, is there actually a human attraction to cat urine itself?
Yes, we observed this fatal attraction phenomenon in humans. Infected men rated the smell of very diluted cat urine as more pleasurable. It was a double-blind study. The people didn't know whether they were infected, and they didn't know what they were smelling. Using 12 urine samples from different animals, they had to rate pleasantness of smell. The pattern was quite clear when we analyzed the results.

I was talking to a graduate student, Charlie Nichols, and he wondered if an attraction to the smell of cat urine is one of the reasons why people like to have cats around. 
It’s possible. At least when somebody dislikes the smell of cats they probably don’t keep them. Smell plays a very strong role in our life. We don’t realize this because it’s mostly subconscious reactions, but love is a question of smell. To fall in love with somebody—very often smell is the reason for this.

Do you think toxoplasmosis plays a role in love in any way?
Toxoplasma changes our sense of smell quantitatively and qualitatively too. There is not enough data for this, but there is some indirect evidence for it. It’s known that the smell of schizophrenics changes. A smell that was pleasurable starts to be unpleasurable. Many data show that a large percentage of schizophrenia is caused by toxoplasmosis.

What is the evidence for that?
There is a prospective study showing that antibodies against toxoplasmosis appeared in the blood of subjects from six months to three years before the start of schizophrenia. Many times schizophrenia is triggered by and may be caused by Toxoplasma. Of course, it’s rare. The frequency of toxoplasmosis is about 30 percent and the frequency of schizophrenia is about 1 percent. So most people who are infected by toxoplasmosis do not get schizophrenia.

You yourself have toxoplasmosis, correct?
Yes.

Do you know where you got it from?
There were several possible sources. I spent more than one year in Japan, and I ate a lot of raw meat, so maybe there.

How did you feel when you found that out?
I was not very happy about this. But a lot of people in the department were infected too—about 30 percent. Now, the prevalence of toxoplasmosis in our students is about 10 percent.

Is that because of better hygiene?
Possibly. Maybe it’s better regulation of public sandboxes. Sand must be changed very often. There are other possibilities too. For example, our recent paper accepted for publication has shown that Toxoplasma is very probably a sexually transmitted disease. So maybe because of the AIDS epidemic, unprotected sex is not so popular, and it has decreased toxoplasmosis.

Did you find Toxoplasma in semen and vaginal fluid?
In some animal species we saw parasites in semen. And in about two-thirds of cases where a human fetus is infected, we weren't able to find any risk factor. The mother did not eat raw meat, she washed vegetables, she behaved very reasonably. There were no risks, and still she became infected. So it’s quite possible that during unprotected sex with her husband, she acquired the infection

You found that the husband was infected?
We have no data on this, but it should be tested.

Can women transmit it to men?
I believe that transmission goes only from men to women—or mainly.

Do you think that the increase in testosterone in infected men is the Toxoplasma trying to increase sex drive so that it can more easily spread?
It is possible. In The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins mentions the possibility of increased sexual drive of patients with syphilis.

I’ve read reports about HIV also increasing sex drive. 
I believe chlamydia can do that maybe too.

I understand that there are very different rates of toxoplasmosis from country to country. Latin American countries have the highest, and South Korea has the lowest, I believe. Do you think toxoplasmosis could affect behavior on a national level?
I believe it can have this impact. It was already published by another parasitologist that national personality can be partially explained by frequency of toxoplasmosis. This year, we published a very important paper showing that the frequency of a lot of diseases can be explained by differences in the prevalence of toxoplasmosis. Our data show a strong relation with epilepsy and cerebrovascular diseases including infarcts [heart attacks]. In Europe, it explains about 16 percent or 17 percent of infarcts. So, if we were able to find a treatment for toxoplasmosis, or if we find a vaccine, we can save a lot of lives.

***

Again we face too many - "unknown, unknowns???"

#Toxo Ties To Mental Illness Affirmed!

Research Supports Toxoplasmosis Link to Schizophrenia

by Sreeraman 

Scientists have discovered how the toxoplasmosis parasite may trigger the development of schizophrenia and other bipolar disorders.

The team from the University of Leeds' Faculty of Biological Sciences (UK) has shown that the parasite may play a role in the development of these disorders by affecting the production of dopamine - the chemical that relays messages in the brain controlling aspects of movement, cognition and behaviour. 

Toxoplasmosis, which is transmitted via cat faeces (found on unwashed vegetables) and raw or undercooked infected meat, is relatively common, with 10-20% of the UK population and 22% of the US population estimated to carry the parasite as cysts. Most people with the parasite are healthy, but for those who are immune-suppressed - and particularly for pregnant women - there are significant health risks that can occasionally be fatal. 

Dr Glenn McConkey, lead researcher on the project, says: "Toxoplasmosis changes some of the chemical messages in the brain, and these changes can have an enormous effect on behaviour. Studies have shown there is a direct statistical link between incidences of schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis infection and our study is the first step in discovering why there is this link." 

The parasite infects the brain by forming a cyst within its cells and produces an enzyme called tyrosine hydroxylase, which is needed to make dopamine. Dopamine's role in mood, sociability, attention, motivation and sleep patterns are well documented and schizophrenia has long been associated with dopamine, which is the target of all schizophrenia drugs on the market. 

The team has recently received $250,000 (£160,000) to progress its research from the US-based Stanley Medical Research Institute, which focuses on mental health conditions and has a particular emphasis on bipolar illnesses. 

Dr McConkey says: "It's highly unlikely that we will find one definitive trigger for schizophrenia as there are many factors involved, but our studies will provide a clue to how toxoplasmosis infection - which is more common than you might think - can impact on the development of the condition in some individuals. 

"In addition, the ability of the parasite to make dopamine implies a potential link with other neurological conditions such as Parkinson's Disease, Tourette's syndrome and attention deficit disorders, says Dr McConkey. "We'd like to extend our research to look at this possibility more closely."

Read more: Research Supports Toxoplasmosis Link to Schizophrenia http://www.medindia.net/news/research-supports-toxoplasmosis-link-to-schizophrenia-48601-1.htm#ixzz3HFS5MjRk

Ever wonder... are we all going crazy?

#Toronto Crazy Cat Lady Not Alone - #toxoplasmosis

How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy

Watch Video

Jaroslav Flegr is no kook. And yet, for years, he suspected his mind had been taken over by parasites that had invaded his brain. So the prolific biologist took his science-fiction hunch into the lab. What he’s now discovering will startle you. Could tiny organisms carried by house cats be creeping into our brains, causing everything from car wrecks to schizophrenia?

The Atlantic - KATHLEEN MCAULIFFE

NO ONE WOULD accuse Jaroslav Flegr of being a conformist. A self-described “sloppy dresser,” the 53-year-old Czech scientist has the contemplative air of someone habitually lost in thought, and his still-youthful, square-jawed face is framed by frizzy red hair that encircles his head like a ring of fire.

Certainly Flegr’s thinking is jarringly unconventional. Starting in the early 1990s, he began to suspect that a single-celled parasite in the protozoan family was subtly manipulating his personality, causing him to behave in strange, often self-destructive ways. And if it was messing with his mind, he reasoned, it was probably doing the same to others.

The parasite, which is excreted by cats in their feces, is called Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii or Toxo for short) and is the microbe that causes toxoplasmosis—the reason pregnant women are told to avoid cats’ litter boxes. Since the 1920s, doctors have recognized that a woman who becomes infected during pregnancy can transmit the disease to the fetus, in some cases resulting in severe brain damage or death. T. gondii is also a major threat to people with weakened immunity: in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, before good antiretroviral drugs were developed, it was to blame for the dementia that afflicted many patients at the disease’s end stage. Healthy children and adults, however, usually experience nothing worse than brief flu-like symptoms before quickly fighting off the protozoan, which thereafter lies dormant inside brain cells—or at least that’s the standard medical wisdom.

But if Flegr is right, the “latent” parasite may be quietly tweaking the connections between our neurons, changing our response to frightening situations, our trust in others, how outgoing we are, and even our preference for certain scents. And that’s not all. He also believes that the organism contributes to car crashes, suicides, and mental disorders such as schizophrenia. When you add up all the different ways it can harm us, says Flegr, “Toxoplasma might even kill as many people as malaria, or at least a million people a year.”

An evolutionary biologist at Charles University in Prague, Flegr has pursued this theory for decades in relative obscurity. Because he struggles with English and is not much of a conversationalist even in his native tongue, he rarely travels to scientific conferences. That “may be one of the reasons my theory is not better known,” he says. And, he believes, his views may invite deep-seated opposition. “There is strong psychological resistance to the possibility that human behavior can be influenced by some stupid parasite,” he says. “Nobody likes to feel like a puppet. Reviewers [of my scientific papers] may have been offended.” Another more obvious reason for resistance, of course, is that Flegr’s notions sound an awful lot like fringe science, right up there with UFO sightings and claims of dolphins telepathically communicating with humans.

But after years of being ignored or discounted, Flegr is starting to gain respectability. Psychedelic as his claims may sound, many researchers, including such big names in neuroscience as Stanford’s Robert Sapolsky, think he could well be onto something. Flegr’s “studies are well conducted, and I can see no reason to doubt them,” Sapolsky tells me. Indeed, recent findings from Sapolsky’s lab and British groups suggest that the parasite is capable of extraordinary shenanigans. T. gondii, reports Sapolsky, can turn a rat’s strong innate aversion to cats into an attraction, luring it into the jaws of its No. 1 predator. Even more amazing is how it does this: the organism rewires circuits in parts of the brain that deal with such primal emotions as fear, anxiety, and sexual arousal. “Overall,” says Sapolsky, “this is wild, bizarre neurobiology.” Another academic heavyweight who takes Flegr seriously is the schizophrenia expert E. Fuller Torrey, director of the Stanley Medical Research Institute, in Maryland. “I admire Jaroslav for doing [this research],” he says. “It’s obviously not politically correct, in the sense that not many labs are doing it. He’s done it mostly on his own, with very little support. I think it bears looking at. I find it completely credible.”

What’s more, many experts think T. gondii may be far from the only microscopic puppeteer capable of pulling our strings. “My guess is that there are scads more examples of this going on in mammals, with parasites we’ve never even heard of,” says Sapolsky.

Familiar to most of us, of course, is the rabies virus. On the verge of killing a dog, bat, or other warm-blooded host, it stirs the animal into a rage while simultaneously migrating from the nervous system to the creature’s saliva, ensuring that when the host bites, the virus will live on in a new carrier. But aside from rabies, stories of parasites commandeering the behavior of large-brained mammals are rare. The far more common victims of parasitic mind control—at least the ones we know about—are fish, crustaceans, and legions of insects, according to Janice Moore, a behavioral biologist at Colorado State University. “Flies, ants, caterpillars, wasps, you name it—there are truckloads of them behaving weirdly as a result of parasites,” she says.

Consider Polysphincta gutfreundi, a parasitic wasp that grabs hold of an orb spider and attaches a tiny egg to its belly. A wormlike larva emerges from the egg, and then releases chemicals that prompt the spider to abandon weaving its familiar spiral web and instead spin its silk thread into a special pattern that will hold the cocoon in which the larva matures. The “possessed” spider even crochets a specific geometric design in the net, camouflaging the cocoon from the wasp’s predators.

Well that's telling it like it is....