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Dr. Marie Gabrielle Laguna

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Medical doctor-internist

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Biopsy robot can perform both MRI and ultrasound

Feb 20, 2016

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A team of scientists in the University of Twente in the Netherlands are trying to create a biopsy robot that combines the best traits of MRI and ultrasound, in order to make the diagnosis of breast cancer�and muscle diseases better.

According to UT researcher Foad Sojoodi Farimani, one of the project leaders of the European research project MURAB (MRI and Ultrasound Robotic Assisted Biopsy), current diagnostic techniques for the detection of breast cancer result in around 10 to 20 percent of patients wrongly being given a negative�for the disease.

Farimani's aim is to reduce the number of false negatives that current techniques are currently causing.�If a mammography shows a suspicious image, then what usually happens is that a piece of the tissue is being taken for a lab assessment. In this case, though, it is quite difficult to determine where the biopsy should be performed. What happens is that many patients who do have cancer are being overlooked.

Biopsy in MRI

One of the solutions that Farimani thought of is putting a biopsy in the MRI scanner. MRI does not generate any radiation, has no side effects, and you can determine very precisely where you should do�your biopsy. But it's very expensive and it takes about 45 to 60 minutes per patient. Even wealthier countries can't afford any large-scale screening programmes with MRI,� explains Farimani.

This led to UT researchers to collaborate with Siemens, KUKA and universities in Verona and Vienna in order to design a robot that combines the best properties of an MRI scan with cheaper and less precise techniques, such as ultrasound and pressure sensors.

Doing such, patients will only need around 15 to 20 minutes in the MRI scanner. This produces an offline MRI image that can be combined with online images from the ultrasound sensor while performing a biopsy. One of the biggest challenges in this project is to use the precise MRI image to locate suspicious tissue in the much more indistinct ultrasound image,� says Farimani.

Other than breast cancer, Farimani and team are trying to make this possible for biopsy on muscle diseases. The end goal, of course, is to make this technology available for any disease that needs a small piece of human tissue for diagnosis.

Dutch hospitals such as Radboud University Medical Center and the ZGT hospital group are also collaborators in this research project. The UT is working with these institutions in order to determine how�the technology can be brought to the market. The robotics involved in this project might actually be the least of their problems, notes Farimani. Actually getting medical technology to market is often easier said than done,� Farimani adds.

The MURAB project is a relatively new project. Last November, the project was able to receive a Horizon2020 grant amounting to 4.3 million euros. Around 1.2 million euros are allotted to UT, which is�in charge of managing the project. Aside from Farimani, professors Stefano Stramigioli, the project leader, and Ferdi van der Heijden are also assigned for project coordination. Both professors are members of the CTIT research institute in UT.

BRCA1 Also Linked to Alzheimer’s Disease

Feb 19, 2016

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The protein BRCA1 has been found to be also required for normal learning and memory and is depleted�by Alzheimer's disease, according to a study by researchers from the Gladstone Institutes.

The basic function of the protein BRCA1 is DNA repair, and mutations in the gene for this protein increase
the risk of acquiring breast and ovarian cancer. The study by the Gladstone Institutes was published in
Nature Communications, and it showed that Alzheimer's disease can cause a deficit of BRCA1 in neurons,
which in turn can cause cognitive defects.

Elsa Suberbielle, PhD, the first author of the study and a research scientist at the Gladstone Institutes says
that BRCA1 has so far been studied primarily in dividing cells and in cancer, which is characterized by
abnormal increases in cell numbers.� This is the reason why they were surprised that the protein also
plays an important role in neurons, which don't divide once mature, and pretty much more in a
neurodegenerative disease that involves a loss of these cells.

In normally dividing cells, BRCA1 is involved in a specific type of DNA damage which are called double-
strand breaks, and this type of damage happens when cells are injured. In the case of neurons, however,
double-strand breaks can happen even in normal circumstances. In a previous study, the scientists were
able to show that these breaks can happen after increased brain activity. Based on these results, they
hypothesized that a cycle of DNA damage and repair actually normally occurs in neurons, and these cycles
are the ones assist in learning and memory. Hence, an imbalance between the two processes of damage
and repair would thereby cause learning and memory deficits.

BRCA1

In order to confirm this hypothesis, the researchers experimentally caused a depletion in the BRCA1
protein level of mice neurons. BRCA1 reduction caused an accumulation of DNA damage and also caused
the neurons to shrink, consequently also causing memory and learning deficits. As Alzheimer's disease is
also characterized by such deficits, the researchers tried to check if these deficits were also mediated by
BRCA1.

Analyzing BRCA1 levels in the post-mortem brains of Alzheimer's patients, they found out that neuronal
BRCA1 levels were reduced by 65-75% when compared with non-demented controls. In Alzheimer's
disease, a protein known as amyloid-beta accumulates, and the scientists tried treating neuron cell
cultures with it. The treatment of amyloid-beta to neuronal cells resulted in a depletion of BRCA1, which
suggests that BRCA1 may indeed be involved in the malfunctioning DNA repair system seen in the brains
of patients with Alzheimer's. In order to further support this claim, the scientists also induced a buildup
of amyloid-beta in the brains of mice, which also reduced neuronal BRCA1 levels. Currently, they are trying
to check whether an increase in the levels of BRCA1 would be able to prevent or reduce
neurodegeneration as well as the subsequent adverse effects on cognition and memory. Lennart Mucke,
MD, senior author and director of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, says that By
normalizing the levels or function of BRCA1, it may be possible to protect neurons from excessive DNA
damage and prevent the many detrimental processes it can set in motion.�

‘Band-aid’-like invention delivers medicine to the skin

Feb 18, 2016

2329

Engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have invented what may be called the band-
aid of the future.

They designed a stretchy hydrogel that is able to include temperature sensors, LED
lights, as well as other electronic devices, such as tiny reservoirs and channels that are able to release
drugs.

If this material is applied to a highly flexible area, or an area that frequently moves in the body, such as
the elbow or knee, it adapts by stretching, thereby protecting the incorporated electronics and keeping
them functional.

The star of this invention is the hydrogel matrix that was designed by Xuanhe Zhao who is the Robert N.
Noyce Career Development Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in MIT. The
hydrogel is designed to bond strongly to materials such as gold, titanium, silicon, aluminum, ceramic and
glass.

Zhao and colleagues published their paper in the journal Advanced Materials, and they embedded various
electronic materials in the hydrogel. The electronics that are on the surface of the hydrogel can actually
be used not only on the skin, but inside the body as well.

Skin Hydrogel

The problem usually is that because the human body is soft and wet, electronics, which are hard and dry,
are not quite compatible for use. If you want to put electronics in close contact with the human body for
applications such as health care monitoring and drug delivery, it is highly desirable to make the electronic
devices soft and stretchable to fit the environment of the human body. That's the motivation for
stretchable hydrogel electronics,� says Zhao.

At present, hydrogels are used as degradable biomaterials, as they are usually brittle, barely stretchable
and adhere weakly to most surfaces. In order to make electronic devices out of this material, factors such
as the long-term stability of the hydrogel and interfaces have to be considered. In order to deal with these
obstacles, Zhao's team thought up of a strategy that involves mixing water with a small amount of special
biopolymers that would enable them to create soft and stretchy materials with the stiffness that as akin
to that of human soft tissues. They were also able to think of a strategy that allowed the hydrogel to bond
strongly with a variety of non-porous substances.

Because of this, they were able to embed various materials, allowing for the hydrogel to have many uses.
They used the hydrogel as an encapsulation for a titanium wire, forming a transparent and stretchable
conductor. The researchers also embedded LED lights in the hydrogel, forming an array, and when
attached to various parts of the body, the lights still continued working. Finally, the group combined many
electronic devices, such as regularly spaced temperature sensors and tiny drug reservoirs, within the
hydrogel to create the smart wound dressing�. They placed the dressing on different parts of the body
and even when highly stretched, it still continued to function.

Hyunwoo Yuk, a member of the team, says that the invention may be used for example as a treatment
method for burns or other skin conditions. They envision that the hydrogel would prove very useful
especially as a biocompatible vehicle for delivering electronics inside the body.

To know more about skin treatments, feel free to read our other articles on this site.

Binging junk food during the weekends is just as bad as eating it regularly

Feb 10, 2016

2792

Jumping between eating well during the weekdays and binging on junk food during the weekends is just as bad for your gut health as consistently eating junk food throughout the week, reports a new�study from University of New South Wales (UNSW).

Published in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, the study was led by Prof. Margaret Morris, who is the head of Pharmacology at UNSW. The team examined the impact of yo-yo dieting, which is basically yo-yoing between junk food and good food, on the gut microbiota of rats.

In the human gut, around 100 trillion microbial cells reside that directly have a role in metabolism, nutrition, as well as immune function. Disruptions to these microbial cells are known to cause a number of gastrointestinal conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease or obesity.

Morris states that the study is the first to be able to compare on how continuous or irregular exposure to an unhealthy diet can affect the composition of the microbes living in the gut.

Junk Food

The findings of the research show that intermittent exposure to junk food for even just three days a week is already enough to shift the microbiota to the pattern that is seen in obese rats that have the�diet continuously. A reduction in the diversity of the gut's microbiota and a loss of some of the beneficial biota is clearly not a good thing for health. While these findings are yet to be replicated in�humans, those who are strict with their diet during the week may be undoing all their good work by�hitting the junk food over the weekend,� says Prof. Morris.

The research compared the abundance of microbiota in rats with either a continuous diet of healthy�food or junk food, to a group cycled between the two diets, healthy food for four days, and junk food for�three, in a period of three weeks.

Metabolic markers such as body weight, fat mass, as well as levels of insulin and leptin, were checked.�After the period of 16 weeks, rats who had the cycled diet were already 18% heavier as compared to�those who were eating the healthy diet, while levels of insulin and leptin were in between those of rats�eating junk food and healthy food.

The researchers also saw that the microbiota in the gut of the rats having cycled diets were almost the�same as those seen in the rats fed a constant diet of junk food. The gut microbiota of both of these�groups was also significantly different from the rats eating a healthy diet.

The rats on the cycled diet also showed large swings when it came to food intake. They consumed 30%�more energy as compared to those on the healthy diet. When the cycled rats switched back to the�healthy diet, they ate only half as much as those consistently on the healthy diet.

Professor Morris says that better understanding of the role of energy rich foods and dieting on gut�microbial changes is quite important, especially because of the present obesity epidemic and the�prevalence of doing yo-yo dieting seen in Western countries.

Women with gestational diabetes can be helped to achieve weight loss with lifestyle intervention

Feb 9, 2016

3364

Based on a new study by Kaiser Permanente published in Diabetes Care, a diabetes prevention program that was given within the nation's largest health care system was able to effectively help women who�have had gestational diabetes reach weight loss goals and increase physical activity after childbirth.

Women who have gestational diabetes mellitus, a specific type that happens during pregnancy, are up to 7 times more likely to have type 2 diabetes in the years that follow after giving birth. Around 75% of women who suffer from this are from racial or ethnic groups.

Obesity is actually one of the key risk factors in developing type 2 diabetes. The diabetes intervention program, called Gestational Diabetes Effects on Moms (GEM) study aimed to identify some health-system-based methods for assisting women who are suffering from gestational diabetes, and allow them to meet their weight goals a year following childbirth. The program helped 1,087 women from 22 clinics in Kaiser�Permanente's Northern California region. The program included receiving direct mails, as well as telephone coaching. Most women also received printouts that described what diabetes risk was and ways in preventing it.

Gestational Diabetes Goals

During the six months after giving birth, women who had gestational diabetes and going to these clinics who had the intervention were 45% more likely to reach their weight goals as compared to those who went to clinics with usual care. The vigorous-intensity physical activity of these women were also
increased by an average of 15.4 minutes per week.

Dr. Assiamira Ferrara, who is the study's lead author and also the section chief of Women's and Children's Health at the Kaiser Permanente California Division of Research, says that the GEM trial is unique in such a way that it was embedded in real-world practice. The findings of the study show that lifestyle intervention for gestational diabetes patients help them manage their weight and increase physical activity as well. This implies that the onset of diabetes may be potentially prevented or delayed.

Yvonne Crites, MD, perinatologist at Kaiser Permanente's Santa Clara Medical Center and medical director of the Perinatal Center, says that the study's findings will inform how we help Kaiser Permanente members who had gestational diabetes reduce their chances of developing type 2 diabetes.�

Patients who participated in the program were mailed information about weight gain during the course of pregnancy, and were also offered the opportunity to acquire a lifestyle workbook, as well as the chance to participate in 13 telephone sessions with a lifestyle coach, which were conducted between 6 weeks and 6 months after giving birth.

Around half of the women who were offered lifestyle intervention participated, which meant that these women wanted to learn more about the risks associated with gestational diabetes. Further analysis of the data also showed that the intervention would have been twice as effective if all women who were offered with the intervention actually participated, and that the number of weight goals achieved would also consequently increase. This would suggest a potential for great impact if doctors can actually improve the participation of patients in lifestyle intervention programs such as GEM.

To read more about diabetes, feel free to browse our other articles on this site.

By: Yevgeny Dulla MSc

Using unused human pancreata to develop artificial pancreas possible

Feb 8, 2016

2200

For a long time, researchers have been trying to find ways to create an artificial pancreas in the�laboratory, as this would be able to help the multitudes of people who are suffering from type 1
diabetes.

A recent study shows though that the answer to this might be found in recycling� pancreata�that aren't used which are from organ donors.

In an article published in the Annals of Surgery, scientists from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's�Institute for Regenerative Medicine report on the possibility of using human pancreata as hardware� to�create artificial ones. The pancreas is a large gland located near the stomach and is responsible for the�secretion of insulin that maintains the level of glucose and other nutrients.

At present, around 1,300 pancreata have been donated for use in organ transplants, and around 25% of�these cannot be used because of defects and many other reasons.

Giuseppe Orlando, M.D., Ph.D., who is the lead author of the study and a transplant surgeon and regenerative medicine researcher, claims that these unused organs can be potentially used as hardware�, and the software� would be the patient's own cells. This would thereby overcome issues of the new pancreas being rejected by the patient's body. We believe that this research represents the first critical step toward a fully human-derived artificial pancreas,� he adds.

Pancreata for Diabetes

Most patients who have type 1 diabetes currently require injections of insulin because their bodies cannot produce enough insulin to maintain their blood sugar levels. Other than this, options such as pancreas transplant are not usually recommended because of the lack of donors as well as the toxic effects of anti-rejection medicine. In the case of the U. S., in every 10,000 patients who have type 1 diabetes, only 3 will�receive a transplant in their lifetime.

The main objective of the study was to determine whether pancreata from organ donors could be used as platforms for creating new artificial bio-pancreas. In the study, 25 discarded organs were first washed in a mild detergent to remove the cells, in a process called decellularization. This is similarly used in efforts to produce kidneys, livers and other organs. After decellularization, blood vessels still remained intact, and numerous growth factors, some of which are involved in blood vessel formation, cell proliferation and glucose metabolism, still remained in the structures.

Theoretically, these structures could be filled with a patient's own cells. For example, skin cells or pancreatic cells could be used to produce insulin-producing cells. In order to test compatibility, the researchers tried placing insulin-producing and endothelial cells on the organ structures, and for both, the structures did not reject the cells and still allowed them to function properly.

Also, in order to check whether the structures were able to produce new blood vessels, they implanted portions of the structures into chicken eggs. The structures were able to successfully integrated and form capillaries.

Lastly, the researchers also checked if the organ structures would be naturally rejected by the immune system. To their surprise, the structures were actually able to regulate the immune response, which indicates that the artificial pancreata could actually be also used as adjuvant immunosuppressants.

Orlando says that their study opens doors for future investigations regarding interactions between organ
structures and cells, as well as studies that aim to find the optimal cell type for complete regeneration of epithelial and islet cells.

To know more about diabetes, feel free to read our other articles on this site.

Use of computer surveys associated with better survival

Feb 7, 2016

2240

In a randomized, controlled trial headed by a University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researcher, the systematic collection of cancer patients' symptoms with the use of a computer-run survey was correlated with less visits to the emergency room, longer average chemotherapy observance, as well as higher survival rates and a better quality of life.

The research, published in The Journal of Clinical Oncology, was led by Ethan Basch, MD, MSc, who is the director of the UNC Lineberger Cancer Outcomes Research Program, and is an associate professor in the UNC School of Medicine Division of Hematology and Oncology as well. In the study, cancer patients from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York reported their symptoms with the use of a web-based survey system, and compared their outcomes with patients who mainly relied on usual care to be able to know their symptoms. A total of 766 patients who had metastatic cancers and were receiving outpatient chemotherapy at the MSKCC were evaluated.

In the case of the patients using the web-based survey system, nurses and doctors are able to receive automatic emails informing them if the patients are experiencing severe or worsening symptoms.

Previous researches have also shown that around half of patients' symptoms are overseen by doctors in the course of cancer treatment. This is the reason why it was recommended that survey systems such as this web-based one will be able to appropriately inform doctors about the important issues of the patients.

Basch says that if they were able to develop a drug that produced the same results, they would be very excited. This randomized trial found that integrating systematic collection of patient symptoms visa the web into cancer treatment improves multiple key clinical outcomes,� he adds.

Computer Survey System

A big number of the patients involved were able to experience improvements in their quality of life, with a 34% improvement for those using the survey system, compared to only 18% improvement for those who were receiving the usual care. Those who were using the survey also had less frequent emergency room visits, with 34% still going to the ER, compared to 41% for those having usual care. They also continue with chemotherapy longer at an average of 8.2 months, compared to the other group who went only until an average of 6.3 months. Survival was also increased: 75% of patients using the system were still alive after one year, and around 69% percent for those who were accepting usual care.

I would suspect that the main mechanism of action is improved awareness by clinicians of patient symptoms, which enables earlier interventions to avert downstream, untoward events,� says Basch.

The survey system, aside from giving benefits to the patients, also improved symptom management activities. It was observed that nurses were more responsive to the results of the system more than 75% of the time, and 12% of medication was changed upon receiving email alerts, as well as referrals to the ER
due to 8% of email alerts.

Similar studies are being done to see if the daily use of the survey system can actually reduce adult patients' symptoms while getting high doses of chemotherapy during bone marrow transplantation.

To know more about the benefits of computer surveys, feel free to read our other articles on this site.

Survey reports high levels of hazardous drinking in students

Feb 6, 2016

2065

Based on the 2015 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey(OSDUHS) by the Center for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), alcohol is still the drug preferred by students in Ontario from grades 7 to 12, with around 29% of students in the 12th grade participating in hazardous drinking. Around more than 25% of high school students are actually allowed to drink at home.

The survey involved 10,426 students across Ontario and is known to be Canada's longest systematic study of the use of drugs among youth, and is also thought to be one of the longest running surveys in the world.

CAMH researchers remain concerned over the fact that students are still consuming alcohol and engaging in hazardous drinking behavior, even if the consumption of alcohol by these teens has decreased from 66% in 1999 to 46% this year. Around 20% of high school students had reported hazardous drinking behavior, which may become grounds for future physical, psychological or social problems.

Around 18% of 168,100 say that they engaged in binge drinking, which means having 5 or more drinks in one occasion, at least once in the month before the survey was done. Around 65% of students also think that alcohol is very easy to acquire, indicating that it is the most readily available drug.

Dr. Robert Mann, senior scientist at CAMH and co-lead investigator of the OSDUHS, says that the rates of student drinking has declined over the past years, but are still very high and have leveled off recently.
Binge drinking is dangerous, and we are concerned to see nearly 20% of high schoolers report blacking out on at least one occasion in the last year,� he adds.

Alcohol and Peers

In a new part of the survey this year, the students were asked if their parents also allowed them to drink inside their homes. Around 27% of the respondents, both males and females, said that they were actually allowed to drink in their houses with their friends.

It suggests some parents might think it's safer to supervise kids while they drink. In fact, other research shows that students who are allowed to drink at home are more likely to drink excessively,� says Dr. Mann.

Aside from alcohol, cannabis is also one of the drugs highly used in the previous year. In a total of 203,900 respondents, around 20% reported to have used cannabis in the past year, and this rate was the same between males and females. The usage of this drug was seen to increase as their students' grade levels became higher, with around 37% of grade 12 students saying they used cannabis last year.

Because of the increase in the number of electronic smoking devices, the survey also asked the students if they used e-cigarettes, called �vaping' to intake cannabis. From 35,300 students, around 5% stated that they vaped cannabis in the past year.

The survey also revealed that there was a number of regional differences in drug use for the past year. For example, students in Northern Ontario use alcohol, tobacco cigarettes, and report binge drinking (52%, 12%, and 22%, respectively) at rates higher than the provincial average.

Seeing others drink alcohol or use drugs can cause teens to engage in antisocial behavior

Feb 5, 2016

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In a new study from Duke University, teens who see others drink alcohol or use drugs makes it more likely for them to exhibit antisocial behavior on the same day.

Especially for those who have the �risk-taking' gene, young adolescents exposed to substance use may have higher risks of also doing the same thing.

Candice Odgers, an associate professor in Duke's Stanford School of Public Policy and associate director of the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy says that previous researches have shown that children who grow up in communities where there is abundant substance abuse are frequently at risk for the development of behavioral problems later in life. But our findings demonstrate that these effects are immediate,� she says. Their research was published in Development and Psychology.

The study involved 151 teens, age 11 to 15, who were in living in high-risk neighborhoods. With the use of cellphones, teens were asked to answer survey questions three times a day for a period of 30 days, which showed real-time information on their activities. The subjects were able to complete more than
90% of the surveys.

Lead author Michael Russell, a research associate at the Penn State Methodology Center, says that most prior studies used daily pen and paper diaries and asked the subjects to recall what had happened in the lives in the previous months. Russell conducted the research when he was still a research associate at the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy.

Alcohol and Antisocial Behavior

The research compared behavior during days in which the teens witnessed substance abuse, with behavior on days when they were not around people using substances. This allowed the authors to see whether seeing people use substances would trigger behaviors such as stealing, hitting or hurting
someone, or damaging property.

It was found that around 30% in the study group who have the DRD4-7R genotype, upon witnessing substance abuse, engage in antisocial behavior. This was applicable for both males and females. Those without the DRD4-7R genotypes were twice as likely to do antisocial behavior, whereas those with the genotype are six times more likely to do it, after witnessing substance abuse.

Our findings support the idea that situations where others are using alcohol or drugs may serve as �triggering contexts' for adolescents' problem behavior, and that some youth, by virtue of their genetics, appear more sensitive to these environmental risks than others,� says Russell.

The DRD4-7R gene is actually associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or ADHD. People who have this disorder have novelty-seeking behavior, and impulsive behavior as well. Recent researches have also shown that persons who have this gene variant may also be more reactive to the environment, which is something known as differential susceptibility�.

This heightened sensitivity may be the cause for the DRD4-7R carrying teens' higher risk for antisocial behavior when exposed to other people doing it, but more research is needed, says Russell.

Odgers says that These findings provide another piece of evidence supporting the need to protect young adolescents from exposure to substances.�

Parasite that ‘hijacks’ host cells could alter brain behavior

Feb 4, 2016

2312

Scientists from Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have discovered how a common parasite hijacks host cells where it lies dormant for a long time. In doing this, it also possibly alters the host's behavior or personality.

Toxoplasma is a common parasite that is transmitted by cats and also found to exist in raw meat, and around 30% of the population is infected with this parasite. Dr. Chris Tonkin, Dr. Justin Boddey, Dr Alex Uboldi, Mr. James McCoy and Mr. Michael Coffrey of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute spearheaded the study.

Dr. Tonkin says that Toxoplasma actually requires a human host cell such as a neuron, to survive. Their team was able to determine how this parasite hijacks for its own growth and survival, after which it hibernates in the host cell for decades because it has already piled up food beforehand.

Toxoplasma infection leads to massive changes in the host cell to prevent immune attack and enable it to acquire a steady nutrient supply,� says Dr. Tonkin. It does this by sending proteins that manipulate the host cell's machinery, thereby allowing its own growth and reproduction.

Dr. Boddey also says that some of the proteins that the Toxoplasma transmits can also influence the behavior of the host. At present, there is a high correlation between Toxoplasma infections and psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Recent advances have also made it possible to check whether the proteins that the parasite sends into the host cells are able to disrupt the normal function of the nervous system which can of course contribute to the worsening of these conditions.

Once the parasite starts to infect a host, it can hibernate in the body of the host for a very long time, mostly until the host dies. For humans whose immune systems are suppressed, for example patients�suffering from cancer, Toxoplasma can become active again and cause brain damage and even death.

Toxoplasmosis

The team of researchers have identified pathways that permit Toxoplasma to make chronic infections,
which pave the way to discovering treatments that may be able to clear the parasite.

We discovered that, similar to animals preparing for hibernation, Toxoplasma parasites stockpile large
amounts of starch when they become dormand,� says Tonkin. By identifying and disabling the switch
that drives starch storage, we found that we could kill the dormant parasites, preventing from establishing
a chronic infection,� he adds.

Cats are said to be the primary transmitters of the parasite. If the parasites are transmitted to pregnant
women, for example because of their contact with cat litter, there is a high risk of miscarriage of birth
defects. This means that the findings would not only be beneficial for those suffering from a chronic
Toxoplasma infection, but it could also make a vaccine that would work for people who are at risk, such
as pregnant women.

Boddey says that scientists have been wondering for a long time in how the parasite transmits its
manipulating proteins. Our study showed that the parasite includes a signature on the exported proteins
that �earmark' them for transport into the host cell,� he said. If this transport is blocked, the parasite
becomes less dangerous. This suggests that blocking the transport would be a good way of treating
patients who are infected with Toxoplasma.

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