Department of Neurology and Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore - 637551.
Trends Parasitol. 2021 May;37(5):381-390. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2020.12.006. Epub 2021 Jan 15.
The protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii infects a wide range of intermediate hosts. The parasite produces brain cysts during the latent phase of its infection, in parallel to causing a loss of innate aversion in the rat host towards cat odors. Host behavioral change presumably reflects a parasitic manipulation to increase predation by definitive felid hosts, although evidence for increased predation is not yet available. In this opinion piece, we propose a neuroendocrine loop to explain the role of gonadal steroids in the parasitized hosts in mediating the behavioral manipulation. We argue that the presence of tissue cysts within the host brain is merely incidental to the behavioral change, without a necessary or sufficient role.
原虫寄生虫刚地弓形虫感染了广泛的中间宿主。寄生虫在其感染的潜伏阶段产生脑部囊肿，同时导致大鼠宿主对猫气味失去先天厌恶。宿主行为的改变推测反映了寄生虫的操纵，以增加终宿主猫科动物的捕食，尽管尚未有证据表明捕食增加。在这篇观点文章中，我们提出了一个神经内分泌环来解释性腺类固醇在被寄生虫感染的宿主中对介导行为操纵的作用。我们认为，宿主大脑内组织囊肿的存在仅仅是行为改变的偶然事件，没有必要或充分的作用。
