The parasite Toxoplasma gondii is the reason pregnant women are told to avoid cats’ litter boxes. The microbe, excreted by cats in their feces, can transmit the disease toxoplasmosis to the fetus, sometimes resulting in severe brain damage or death. Toxoplasma gondii is one of the most common parasites in the world, estimated to infect about one-third of people on earth. Toxoplasmosis is readily treatable, however the parasite remains dormant in the body for the person’s lifetime, often in the brain, spinal cord, and eye. There are currently no drugs available to treat this chronic stage of the parasite and the potential for reoccurrence of acute infection due to immune suppression. There is also growing evidence that the chronic stage of T. gondii may play a role in numerous neurological and psychological disorders.
Oregon State University microbiologists have shown that zebrafish can be infected with Toxoplasma gondii, a discovery that could lead to new drugs for this common, sometimes deadly, infection. Zebrafish are an excellent model for biomedical research because they are transparent during development, mature rapidly, and share about 80 percent of their genes with humans. This allows scientists to test hundreds of compounds in a short period of time.
OSU’s Sinnhuber Aquatic Research Laboratory is one of the world’s foremost facilities for biomedical research using zebrafish research models.
“This advance may provide a very efficient tool for the discovery of new therapies for T. gondii,” said Justin Sanders, an OSU researcher and lead scientist on the study. “With it we should be able to screen a large library of compounds, at much less expense, and examine things that have never been considered as possible treatments for this parasitic disease.”