Toxoplasmosis

A new study of 601 older adults found that those with higher serointensity -- or a higher concentration of antibiodies -- to the cat-borne parasite Toxoplasma gondii are more likely to show signs of frailty, including exhaustion, loss of muscle mass and other indications of declining health. T. Gondii has previously been associated with risk-taking behavior and mental illness. A common, cat-borne parasite already associated with risk-taking behavior and mental illness in humans may also contribute to exhaustion, loss of muscle mass, and other signs of "frailty" in older adults, suggests a study published Nov. 6 in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Science. The research, by an international team of scientists including University of Colorado Boulder, University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University of A Coruña in Spain, is the latest to explore how the tiny, single-celled organism Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) could have big impacts on human health. "We often think of T. gondii infection as relatively asymptomatic, but this study highlights that for some people it may have significant health consequences later on," said co-author Christopher Lowry, a professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology at CU Boulder. Approximately 11% to 15% of people in the U.S. have been infected with T. gondii at some point and rates tend to be far higher in older individuals. In some countries, more than 65% have been infected. Once infected, people can unknowingly harbor the parasite for life. For the study, the team examined the blood of 601 Spanish and Portuguese adults over 65, along with measures of a common geriatric syndrome known as "frailty" -- which includes unintentional weight loss, tiredeness, loss of cognitive sharpness and other indications of declining health. A whopping 67% of study subjects were "seropositive" showing markers in their blood of a latent infection. The researchers did not, as they originally hypothesized, find an association between any infection to T. gondii and frailty. But they did find that, among those infected, those with higher "serointensity" or a higher concentration of antibodies to the parasite, were significantly more likely to be frail. Higher serointensity could reflect a more virulent or widespread infection, multiple infections or recent reactivation of a latent infection, the authors said. "This paper is important because it provides, for the first time, evidence of the existence of a link between frailty in older adults and intensity of the response to T. gondii infection," said co-author Blanca Laffon, a professor of psychobiology at the Interdisciplinary Centre of Chemistry and Biology at University of A Coruña. How cats spread T. gondii Wild and domestic felines are considered the definitive host of the parasite, while warm-blooded animals like birds and rodents serve as secondary hosts: When cats eat infected animals, T. gondii takes up residence and multiplies in their intestines, shedding eggs in their feces. People are typically infected via exposure to those eggs (via litter boxes, contaminated water or dirty vegetables) or by eating undercooked pork, lamb or other meat that's infested. Most people never know they've been infected, with only about 10% initially having brief flu-like symptoms. But T. gondii tends to linger dormant for decades, cloaked in cysts in muscle and brain tissue (specifically the emotion-processing region known as the amygdala) with some insidious impacts, mounting research suggests. In a creepy evolutionary trick seemingly designed to benefit the parasite's favorite host, rodents infected with T. gondii tend to lose their fear of felines, making it easier for cats to catch rats and mice. In the wild, infected chimpanzees have been shown to actually grow attracted to the smell of the urine of their feline predator, the leopard. People who have been infected also tend to engage in risky behavior, with research showing they tend to be more impulsive, more entrepreneurial and more likely to get in a car accident. They also have higher rates of schizophrenia, certain mood disorders, cognitive problems and are more likely to attempt suicide, according to research by Lowry and Dr. Teodor Postolache, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at University of Maryland School of Medicine and senior author on the new study. A declining immune response? The authors caution that the new study does not prove that exposure to T. gondii causes frailty, but rather identifies a compelling association that warrants further study. They found that frail people with high T. gondii seropositivity also had higher levels of certain inflammatory markers, suggesting that infection with the parasite could exacerbate inflammation that already occurs with aging -- a.k.a. "inflammaging." Because latent T. gondii tends to hide out in muscle tissue, Postolache suspects it could also play a role in hastening sarcopenia, or age-related muscle wasting. Lowry's research centers around the impact microorganisms have on the immune system and, thus, mental health. He notes that many microbes that humans have evolved with impact health in a positive way -- a theory known as the Old Friends hypothesis. Even T. gondii may have health benefits we aren't yet aware of, he said. But in some cases, a switch flips, and friends become enemies. In the case of T. gondii, certain medications or immune compromising diseases like HIV or cancer can enable a latent infection to escape suppression and reactivate, with adverse effects. Even in people with healthy immune systems, Lowry notes, immune function can decline with age, potentially enabling dormant T. gondii to rear up. The researchers hope their study will inspire more research into the relationship between T. gondii and frailty, and ultimately lead to new ways of keeping the parasite from doing harm. For now, they encourage people -- especially pregnant and immune compromised people -- to take steps to avoid infection. Tips for preventing infection: Change litter box daily, and wash hands afterward. Avoid eating undercooked meat. Rinse fruits and vegetables. If pregnant or immunocompromised: Avoid changing the litter box if possible (T. gondii infection during pregnancy can cause serious problems to a developing fetus). Keep cats indoors. Avoid stray cats.

NEW YORK and BAAR, Switzerland, Aug. 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Vyera Pharmaceuticals, LLC ("Vyera") and Phoenixus AG ("Phoenixus") today announced that they have entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement related to Daraprim and Vecamyl. The aggregate consideration to be paid for the sale and transfer of the purchased assets and the assignment of the certain contracts, subject to adjustment, shall be $650,000 together with the assumption of post-closing liabilities. The closing of the transaction is subject to satisfaction of certain conditions, including without limitation approval of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware with which Vyera and Phoenixus, together with affiliated parties, have filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of Title 11 of the United States Code and have elected to proceed under Subchapter V thereunder. The bankruptcy cases are jointly administered under Case No. 23-10605 (JKS). As part of the Subchapter V proceedings, Vyera filed a motion seeking authorization of its proposed bidding procedures under which to conduct its 363 sale. Additional information about this process and the proposed asset sale, as well as other documents relating to Vyera's Subchapter V proceedings, is available through Vyera's claims and noticing agent's website: . DLA Piper LLP is serving as the Vyera's legal counsel. SierraConstellation Partners LLC is serving as Chief Restructuring Officer and financial advisor, and Alvarez and Marsal Securities LLC is serving as investment banker. For more information about the sale process, interested parties should contact Alvarez and Marsal Securities LLC. About Daraprim DARAPRIM is a prescription medication that contains pyrimethamine for the treatment of toxoplasmosis when used with a sulfonamide (e.g., sulfadoxine). Toxoplasmosis is a serious, sometimes fatal infection caused by the Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) parasite, one of the most common parasites in the world. About Vecamyl VECAMYL® (mecamylamine HCI) is indicated for the management of moderately severe to severe essential hypertension and in uncomplicated cases of malignant hypertension. About Vyera Vyera is a United States based biopharmaceutical company committed to developing and commercializing treatments that address serious and rare diseases with high unmet medical needs. Vyera supports programs that offer financial assistance to patients in need and gives discounts to organizations that provide care to underserved populations. Vyera's research and development efforts focus on novel treatment options for toxoplasmosis and other rare or serious health conditions. . 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Parasitic hairworms manipulate the behavior of their hosts in what's sometimes called 'mind control.' A new study reveals another strange trait shared by different hairworm species: they're missing about 30% of the genes that researchers expected them to have. What's more, the missing genes are responsible for the development of cilia, the hair-like structures present in at least some of the cells of every other animal known. In a world full of bizarre animals, hairworms are some of the strangest: parasitic worms that manipulate the behavior of their hosts in what's sometimes called "mind control." A new study in the journal Current Biology reveals another strange trait shared by different hairworm species: they're missing about 30% of the genes that researchers expected them to have. What's more, the missing genes are responsible for the development of cilia, the hair-like structures present in at least some of the cells of every other animal known. Hairworms are found all over the world, and they look like skinny strands of spaghetti, a couple inches long. Their simple bodies hint at their parasitic lifestyle -- they have no excretory, respiratory, or circulatory systems, and they spend almost their entire lives inside the bodies of other animals. "One of the coolest things, maybe the thing that they are most known for, is that they can affect the behavior of their hosts and make them do things that they wouldn't do otherwise," says Tauana Cunha, a postdoctoral researcher at Chicago's Field Museum and lead author of the study done in collaboration with Harvard University and the University of Copenhagen. There are a few hundred species of freshwater hairworms. Their eggs hatch in water, and the hairworm larvae get eaten by tiny water-dwelling predators like mayfly larvae, which in turn get eaten by bigger, land-dwelling predators like crickets. After growing into adulthood inside of their new hosts' bodies, the hairworms manipulate the hosts' behavior, causing them to jump into water. There, the worms swim out of their hosts' butts and seek out mates, knotting themselves together, to begin the cycle anew. (There are also five species of hairworms that live in marine environments and parasitize water-dwelling creatures like lobsters, but it's not clear if those ones also have host manipulation capabilities -- there's no pressure for the worms to get back to the water, since the hosts already live there.) As strange as hairworms' behavior is, Cunha's research interest in the animals has more to do with their DNA. "We set out to sequence their genomes, because nothing like them has ever been sequenced before at that level," she says of the study conducted with her co-authors Bruno de Medeiros, Arianna Lord, Martin Sørensen, and Gonzalo Giribet. "The goal was to produce those genomes and eventually use them to understand the evolutionary relationships between hairworms and other kinds of animals." She and her colleagues took DNA samples from two hairworm species -- one freshwater and one saltwater -- and sequenced them. But when they compared the hairworms' genetic codes to those of other animals, they found something striking. "What we found, which was very surprising, was that both hairworm genomes were missing about 30% of a set of genes that are expected to be present across basically all groups of animals," says Cunha. Results like that often make scientists wonder if they've made a mistake. But there was a connection between the missing genes in the two worm species. "The large majority of the missing genes were exactly the same between the two species. This was just implausible by chance," says Cunha. By looking at what functions these missing genes are responsible for in other animal groups, Cunha and colleagues showed that they give the instructions for producing cilia. "Cilia are organelles, small structures at the cellular level, that are basically present across all animals and even more broadly, in protists and some plants and fungi. So they're present across a large diversity of life on Earth," says Cunha. They're present in many of the cells in the human body: for instance, the tails of sperm cells are cilia, and cells in the retinas of our eyes have cilia too. Previously, scientists had found that hairworms seemed to be missing cilia where they'd normally be found. Hairworm sperm, for example, do not have tails. But while no one had ever seen a ciliated cell from a hairworm, that wasn't considered definitive proof that they didn't have them. It's hard to prove something with negative evidence. "Without the genomes, this would require looking at all cells in all life stages in all species," says Bruno de Medeiros, Curator of Pollinating Insects at the Field Museum and co-author of the paper. "Based on previous observations, it didn't seem like hairworms had any cilia, but we didn't really know for sure," says Cunha. "Now with the genomes, we saw that they actually lack the genes that produce cilia in other animals -- they don't have the machinery to make cilia in the first place." What's more, the fact that both the freshwater and marine hairworm species had lost the genes for cilia indicates that this evolutionary change happened in the deep past to the two species' common ancestor. "It is likely that the loss happened early on in the evolution of the group, and they just have been carrying on like that," says Cunha. The finding opens the door to several new questions. It's not clear how the lack of cilia have affected hairworms, or if the hairworms' parasitic behavior could be related to the missing cilia. "There are plenty of other parasitic organisms that aren't missing these specific genes, so we cannot say that the genes are missing because of their parasitic lifestyle," says Cunha. "But parasitic organisms in general are often missing lots of genes. It's hypothesized that because parasites are not using certain structures and instead rely on their hosts, they end up losing those structures." Hairworms aren't the only parasites capable of "mind control" -- it's a behavior that's cropped up in protozoans like the organism responsible for toxoplasmosis, which reduces rodents' fear of cats, and in the fungus Ophiocordyceps, made famous by the video game and TV show The Last of Us, which manipulates ants into spreading the fungus's spores. While these organisms are only distantly related to hairworms, Cunha says that the new study could help scientists find common threads for how this behavior works. "By doing this comparative analysis across organisms in the future, we might be able to look for similarities. Or maybe these organisms evolved similar behaviors in completely different ways from each other," says Cunha.