Talk:Toxoplasma gondii

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Contents

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Plagarism

It appears that some sections of this article were directly copied from a recently Slashdot listed Yahoo article. --User:Overand 09:44, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Yup, I'll change it. AxelBoldt 22:00, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] LSD?

The Straight Dope says T. Gondii might produce LSD. I want to hear more about that. —Keenan Pepper 16:21, 12 February 2006 (UTC)


Behavioral modifications of the host Main article: Toxoplasmosis

Quite frankly this have not been proved. No one has ever (either) proved connection between a 'particle' and mental illness. Having read this I found it quite fanciful.

Independet here means... loose pieces of evidence without consideration to 'provenience' concocted togheter to make a case.

A mouse that is attracted to cat urine is pretty definitively mentally ill.WolfKeeper 15:06, 26 March 2006 (UTC)
There's no direct link between conventional mental illness and Toxoplasmosis, but it does seem to sometimes cause schizophrenic illnesses; if (I believe the current evidence suggests) not actual schizophrenia. Toxoplasmosis does causes the body to attack its own tissues to try to kill the bug, because the bug targets nerves this can lead to blindness and other nerve damage.WolfKeeper 15:06, 26 March 2006 (UTC)
Check out the Times article linked from this article -- it talks abot mice being attracted to cats.

[edit] Cat lovers

I'd like to see a study to find out if infection with this causes a human to like being around cats more. WAS 4.250 17:48, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I believe treatment is missing

I do not know how to edit wikipedia pages, but I believe treatment for Toxoplasma gondii is lacking in this page, both in pregnant women (also, there is nothing mentioned about the TORCH syndrome associated with Toxoplasma spp) and in eligible patients (patients with an acute symptomatic syndrome, pregnant women with seroconversion, New-Born with congenital Toxoplasmosis and certain inmunosupressed patients). In any case, drug treatment as taught in Med School is: Pirimetamine + Sulfonamides + Folic Acid, or Macrolides (spiramicine) in pregnant women, as well as clindamicine. Perhaps this should be mentioned somewhere in the article?

Look at Toxoplasmosis, which is the related disease to this organism.WolfKeeper 00:59, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] fascinating stuff in the NYT

Follow the first link, the one to the Times -- it's absolutely fascinating stuff, and could be added to the article (of course w/ proper respect for copyright).

[edit] Missing citations.

Don't know how to add superscript footnote references to the main page, but the (only) reference to the claim that Haloperidol inhibits toxo in cell culture is : Jones-Brando L, Torrey EF, Yolken R. Drugs used in the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder inhibit the replication of Toxoplasma gondii. Schizophr Res. 2003 Aug 1;62(3):237-44. PMID: 12837520

It looks like the fifth reference, the one for infection rates in various countries, is missing.

The numbers seem about right, though 88% is on the high end for France.

[edit] Toxoplasmosis and otters

I'd like to see more about the contamination of marine waters by municipal waste waters where people have flushed cat feces. I believe most municipal water treatment does not affect Toxoplasma gondii. People on Monterey Bay at both the Moss Landing Marine Labs and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute believe otters have been affected by Toxoplasma gondii. Also, some brands of cat litter are sold as "flushable" so information about this infection source would be important.

[edit] One gene, 90% responsible for making TG dangerous

They are working to find other genes responsible.[1] Brian Pearson 06:49, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Alley Cats & Sex Kittens

Could someone please get hold of the Alley Cats & Sex Kittens article from Australasian Science magazine and check it out? The blurb reads:

"One of the most common human parasite infections in the world can affect our mental state, including our sexual attractiveness, IQ, schizophrenia and the likelihood of being in a car accident. Nicky Boulter reports."

I think there may be more in this article that would be good to add to the Wikipedia article than I am currently aware of at this time :) Mattabat 11:32, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

The article is what got me interested in this page - but it is not a scientific article. The article reads like a tabloid and its conclusions is based on ify statistics. Besides, its mentioned in the main article - this page should not go into the details of toxoplasmosis. It should be giving a summary of whats in toxoplasmosis. Fresheneesz 22:33, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] merge?

Should this page and toxoplasmosis be merged? People have been writing separate but parallel information about toxoplasmosis on both page - and its not very efficient. Fresheneesz 22:44, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] nicky boulter

Someone wrote on my talk page:

fresheneesz, you said on the discussion for toxoplasma gondii that you had read the article by nicky boulter- is it available online anywhere? all i can find are articles quoting her, with the same 2 or 3 quotes in each one.

In response to that, what I meant was that I read an article about her(?) work - probably one of the ones you've read. Fresheneesz 23:48, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merge from Tachyzoite, Tachyzoites and Bradyzoite

All of the above articles are approximately two years old and contain relatively or very little content. Two of them form a redundant pair, and all have subject matter which seems most relevant in the context of this article (Toxoplasma gondii). I have therefore suggested a merge from all three of the above articles into this one. People's thoughts? Robin S 23:43, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

I agree that the first two are completely redundant and should be merged with each other, but I'd oppose a merger of the other two into this article. --Arcadian 02:54, 5 August 2007 (UTC)
How about into another article, such as Coccidia (broken link from Tachyzoites)? There may be more than one possible destination article for the merge, but I don't think that the above three still deserve their own articles if they still haven't grown significantly after so long. Robin S 13:03, 5 August 2007 (UTC)
I oppose merging all of the articles, but tachyzoite and tachyzoites should be merged with each other. Merging the other terms into this article is like merging "antler" and "ungulate" with the mule deer article--they should really stay separate.TeamZissou 05:48, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Wow, that merge tag had been there for a while. Per the apparent consensus above, I have merged Tachyzoites and Tachyzoite together and removed the merge tags from all the articles. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 21:22, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Quick question(s)....

Um...wasn't there a "live-science"article about toxoplasma gondii??? And, is it true that T.G. affects half the world's human population? Another thing...if T.G. has effects on humans and mice/rats, what about birds and other animals? Finally....has T.G. considered taking over the world?! (Just kidding.  ;P )--Wolfluv1 (talk) 00:21, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] In macrophages?

Can someone provide a reference to the claim that Tg enter Macrophages? I haven't seen it anywhere else. In a NYT piece Carl Zimmer elaborates on their relation with Dendritic cells, so maybe someone confused the two. I will return to correct this if there will be no response. trespassers william (talk) 20:07, 6 March 2008 (UTC)