Latent infection with the apicomplexan Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908) has been associated with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and self-harm behaviour. However, the potential relationship between T. gondii immunoglobulin G antibody (IgG) seropositivity and generalised-anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic disorder (PD) has not been investigated. The associations between serum reactivity to T. gondii and major depressive disorder (MDD), GAD and PD were evaluated in a total sample of 1 846 adult participants between the ages of 20 and 39 years from the United States Center for Disease Control's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Approximately 16% of the overall sample was seropositive for T. gondii and 7% of the sample met criteria for MDD, 2% for GAD and 2% for PD. There were no significant associations between T. gondii IgG seroprevalence and MDD (OR = 0.484, 95% CI = 0.186-1.258), GAD (OR = 0.737, 95% CI = 0.218-2.490) or PD (OR = 0.683, 95% CI = 0.206-2.270) controlling for sex, ethnicity, poverty-to-income ratio and educational attainment. However, limited evidence suggested a possible association between absolute antibody titres for T. gondii and GAD and PD but not MDD. Toxoplasma gondii seroprevalence was not associated with MDD, GAD or PD within the context of the limitations of this study, although there may be an association of T. gondii serointensity with and GAD and PD, which requires further study.
Latent toxoplasmosis is the most widespread parasite infection in developed and developing countries. I'he prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection varies mostly between 20 to 80% in different territories. This form of toxoplasmosis is generally considered to be asymptomatic. Recently published results, however, suggest that the personality profiles of infected subjects differ from those of uninfected controls. These results, however, were obtained on non-standard populations (biologists or former acute toxoplasmosis patients). Here we studied the personality profiles of 191 young women tested for anti-Toxoplasma immunity during gravidity. The results showed that the differences between Toxoplasma-negative and loxoplasma-posilive subjects exits also in this sample of healthy women. The subjects with latent toxoplasmosis had higher intelligence, lower guilt proneness, and possibly also higher ergic tension. The difference in several other factors (desurgency/surgency, alaxia/protension, naiveté/shrewdness, and selfsentiment integration) concerned changes in the variances, rather than the mean values of the factors.
According to studies, latent Toxoplasma gondii infection may affect several functions of the human brain. Here we search for the association between latent toxoplasmosis and cognitive performance. We tested 70 individuals for latent T. gondii infection. There were 26 Toxoplasma-infected subjects and 44 Toxoplasma-free subjects. Within these two groups we assessed cognitive performance using a set of standardized, widely recognized neuropsychological tests: Trail Making Test, Stroop Test, Verbal Fluency Test, Digit Span Test and N-back test. The relationship between chronic toxoplasmosis and cognitive performance was assessed, with adjustment for age and sex. Patients with latent toxoplasmosis performed worse on one neuropsychological test, N-back Test - percentage of correct answers (β -8.08; 95%CI -15.64 to -0.53; p<0.05) compared to seronegative patients. However, after adjustment for age and sex, no statistically significant associations between latent toxoplasmosis and the scores on any cognitive tests were noticed. As statistically significant relationship was not observed, this study does not confirm that chronic latent T. gondii infection affects cognition.
Liver pathologies and infection with Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908) are widespread among HIV-infected patients. However, a possible contribution of toxoplasmosis to the development of various forms of liver diseases in HIV-infected individuals has not yet been determined. This research is a retrospective cohort study. Medical cards of 907 HIV-positive patients, including 119 individuals who died, were studied. The patients were divided into two groups: 531 patients were seropositive to T. gondii and 376 seronegative. General liver pathology was more widespread among patients seropositive to T. gondii than in seronegative patients (63.1 ± 2.1% and 51.9 ± 2.6%, respectively, p < 0.001). The association of seropositive to T. gondii with general liver pathology is weak both in the whole cohort (Pearson's contingency coefficient C = 0.112), and among the deceased patients (C = 0.228). and Chronic HBV-HCV coinfection was more common in the seropositive than in seronegative individuals as it was found both in entire cohorts (26.0 ± 1.9% and 18.6 ± 2.0%, respectively, p = 0.010) and in died patients (31.0 ± 5.5% and 14.6 ± 5.1%, respectively, p = 0.041). Toxoplasma gondii had a weak role in distributing of HBV-HCV coinfection between cohorts (C = 0.187). In both cohorts in patients with chronic hepatitis, regardless of its etiology, there was no significant difference in alanine transaminase activity (ALT). Cirrhosis of the liver occurred 4.5 times more often in deceased seropositive patients than in the entire seropositive cohort (23.9 ± 5.1 and 5.3 ± 2.0, respectively, p = 0.0006) whereas it no significantly increased in seronegative cohort (10.4 ± 4.4 against 4.8 ± 1.1, p > 0.05). In them T. gondii is weakly involved in cirrhosis formation (C = 0.168). Thus, in HIV-infected patients, T. gondii is a weak nonspecific adjunct that supports chronic liver inflammation and progression of cirrhosis, regardless of etiology, but does not influence the degree of hepatitis activity. The increased prevalence of HBV-HCV coinfection in patients seropositive for T. gondii may be related to their risk factor behaviour associated with uncontrolled blood contacts.
Numerous recent studies show that vitamin D deficiency potentiates various chronic physical and psychiatric disorders and diseases. It has been shown that a similar range of disorders is also associated with latent infection with Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908). For instance, among cancer, diabetes and schizophrenia patients, we find a higher prevalence of both toxoplasmosis and vitamin D deficiency. Theoretically, therefore, vitamin D deficiency could be the missing link between toxoplasmosis and these disorders. We tested this hypothesis by searching for decreased vitamin D levels in the serum of subjects infected with T. gondii (furthermore called Toxoplasma-infected subjects) in two cross-sectional and one case-control study. Results of the first cross-sectional study (N = 72) suggest that Toxoplasma-infected neurasthenic patients have non-significantly lower levels of calcidiol than Toxoplasma-free patients (study A: P = 0.26 in women, P = 0.68 in men). However, two other studies (study B: N = 400; study C: N = 191) showed a non-significantly higher concentration of vitamin D in Toxoplasma-infected subjects than in Toxoplasma-free subjects both in men (study B: P = 0.70, study C: P = 0.55) and in women (study B: P = 0.64, study C: P = 0.12). Taken together, our preliminary results thus do not support the hypothesis that toxoplasmosis could be associated with vitamin D decrease.
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., Shawn D. Gale, Andrew N. Berrett, Bruce Brown, Lance D. Erickson, Dawson W. Hedges., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908) is an intracellular parasite that can cause ongoing latent infection persisting for the duration of a non-definitive host's life. Affecting approximately one-third of the world's population, latent toxoplasmosis has been associated with neuropsychological outcomes and a previous report suggested an association between latent toxoplasmosis and adult height. Given the large number of people with latent toxoplasmosis and its potential associations with human height, we sought to better understand the association between latent toxoplasmosis and human morphology by evaluating seropositivity for T. gondii and multiple body measures reported in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (NHANES III) and in the more recent continuous NHANES data sets from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for which data on T. gondii are available. In these analyses, latent toxoplasmosis was not associated with any of the body measures assessed in the NHANES datasets even after taking into account interactions between latent toxoplasmosis and testosterone suggesting that in these samples, latent toxoplasmosis is not associated with adult morphology including height., Andrew N. Berrett, Shawn D. Gale, Lance D. Erickson, Bruce L. Brown, Dawson W. Hedges., and Obsahuje bibliografii
I have hypothesized that mammalian offspring sex ratios (proportions male at birth) are partially controlled by the hormone levels of both parents around the time of conception. Recently data have been published (privately) which impugn suggestions of mine (based on that hypothesis) relating to the offspring sex ratios of people who are carriers of hepatitis B virus; and (publicly) to hormone profiles of women who are infected with the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Here these data are reviewed in the light of data on offspring sex ratios of people infected with hepatitis C, and cytomegalovirus and T. gondii; and of mice with T. gondii and the trichostrongyline nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus. Three proposals are made viz: 1. Women infected with T. gondii may have high oestrogen levels. This would potentially explain reports of their high offspring sex ratios, long gestations and (perhaps) behavioural traits. 2. Some of these infective organisms may 'prefer' a particular endocrine environment in their host (in the sense that it facilitates replication or transmission or both). 3. Some of these organisms apparently cause changes in that endocrine environment as a consequence of their presence. If both the latter two proposals were correct, it could explain recent puzzling data on the offspring sex ratios of hepatitis B carriers. And if this solution turns out to be correct, it would suggest new endocrine means of combating hepatitis B infection.
Apoptosis plays crucial role in the pathogenesis of toxoplasmosis, as it limits further development of the disease. The current study aimed to investigate the effects of different concentrations of soluble total antigen (STAg) of Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908) on the apoptotic and anti-apoptotic pathways. PMA-activated THP-1 cell line was sensed by T. gondii STAg and the expression patterns of caspase-3, -7, -8, -9, Bax, Bcl-2, and Mcl-1 genes were evaluated. The results showed statistically significant concentration-dependent overexpression of both Bcl-2 (P-value < 0.0001) and Mcl-1 (P-value = 0.0147). The cas-7 showed overexpression in all concentrations (P-value < 0.0001). The cas-3 was suppressed in concentrations 100, 80, and 40 µg, but statistically significant downregulated in concentrations 10 and 20 µg. The Bax was suppressed in concentrations 100 to 20 µg, while it slightly downregulated 1.42 fold (P-value = 0.0029) in concentration 10 µg. The expression of cas-8 and -9 was suppressed in all concentrations. Our results indicated that T. gondii STAg downregulated and suppressed apoptotic and upregulated anti-apoptotic pathways. The upregulation of cas-7 in this study may indicate the role of T. gondii STAg in activation of inflammatory responses.
Individuals serologically positive for the chronic infection with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii (TG) display certain personality traits differently from uninfected individuals. Experimental data in mice demonstrate that TG infection modulates behaviour. However, psychiatric patients with a personality disorder have not yet been investigated systematically. In our sample containing 896 psychiatric inpatients with the primary diagnoses of schizophrenia, major depression, schizoaffective or bipolar disorder and 214 psychiatrically unaffected controls (same geographic region, sampled during same time period) we analysed for effects of the additional diagnosis of a personality disorder in the patients. Psychiatrically, a patient can meet the criteria of a personality disorder additionally to any of the mentioned primary diagnoses. We applied logistic regression and cross-table statistics, separated groups by the presence/absence of a personality disorder (ICD-10) and adjusted for age between groups. We found that among all patients the additional diagnosis of a personality disorder was significantly associated with TG infection. Furthermore, only in the patients with an additional personality disorder medium titre responses (1:16-1:64) were associated with chronic course and high C-reactive protein (CRP) levels whereas high titre response (>1:64) was associated with a more acute recurrent clinical course. In the older individuals only there was a preponderance of medium titre responses (1:16-1:64) among the patients with personality disorder compared to those without and controls. We conclude that TG infection and the host's response to it make a difference for the diagnosis of a personality disorder. Our data support that TG infection can modulate human behaviour and personality traits.