© Ke Hu and John Murray, PLoSThe mind-altering parasite called Toxoplasma gondii has a unique apparatus that is likely used to invade host cells and for its own replication. Shown here, the parasite is building daughter scaffolds within the mother cell.
A parasite known for its ability to influence the minds of its hosts also hijacks the immune system, a new study finds. In fact, the parasite uses cells that would normally help defeat it as transport to get around the body.
Toxoplasma gondii is a tiny parasite that infects about a quarter of the world's population. Most human infections are asymptomatic, though research has hinted the parasite might have subtle behavioral influences.
Infected individuals are more likely to
attempt suicide, for example, and
T. gondii infection may increase
brain cancer risk.
The parasite's real interests, however, are cats and rodents.
T. gondii can live in any warm-blooded creature, but it prefers to end up in the gut of a cat, where it can breed.
To do so, the parasite takes control of the minds of its rodent hosts, making the
smell of cat urine sexually appealing to them rather than scary. That ups the chances a rodent will cozy up to a cat and get scarfed down, along with the parasite.