Progress on Stealth Pathogen SNPs
Many of us have potentially deadly disease?
This science paper looks in new ways at the life-long infection by Toxoplasma gondii, the single-cell “big brother” to the parasite that causes Malaria. Often minimized by health authorities and doctors as an infection of concern only to immune-compromised people including pregnant women, Toxoplasma findings in this paper are groundbreaking. This research reveals and confirms how:
Toxoplasma parasitic infection disrupts genetic factors and metabolic function in its host:
Parasite disruptions cause a vast, varied and significant range of cellular and systemic dysfunction, even when local or disseminated infection appears asymptomatic or sub-clinical against medical metrics:
Latent infection constitutes an active process worthy of classification as a disease using medical nomenclature, calling it "Toxoplasmosis";
An estimated at 2-3 billion people are infected by this parasite.
Moreover, thorough reading of the paper is significant in its articulation -- in descriptions under charts and graphs for example -- that Toxoplasma is known to scientists as a deadly pathogen. This paper details some of the basics in terms of biological mechanisms.
Do these scientists aim to use their findings to equip academic institutions and public health authorities with working knowledge to properly include Toxoplasmosis in medical differentials, standard medical and public health education?
The estimate of 3 billion Toxoplasma carriers is based on a common clinical test for Toxoplasma IgG antibodies. But it's just one of many potentially necessary biomarkers of host infection. Blood-based IgG is not the most effective metric despite being set as a standard to limit conventional differentiation of disease. Compared to IgA antibodies or other combinations of DNA and microRNA markers used in research labs, IgG metrics are known from other studies (by some of these same scientists) as a factor that grossly underestimates the scope of new, active, latent and chronic forms of this deadly infection.
In a clinical setting, Toxoplasma infection may be named as something else by doctors in terms of symptomatic differentials. Antibodies may be prevented, destroyed or depleted by the parasite. It can evade or confuse immune responses by, for example, infecting white blood cells. I has been described as a "stealth" pathogen, yet not without means to identify and treat infection (Weiss and Kim 2013, provides research-oriented references and more than 1000 pages in summary of the science).
This paper is remarkable, none-the-less, due the the large number of leading scientists formally signed on to the findings. Some are known to have sway on public health policy. Some have previously reported research findings to confirm that Toxoplasma is not just a “benign” or decisively “forgotten” public health concern as suggested by those health authorities. Here, the scientific publication is at least forthright in practical interpretation of study findings so applies proper medical nomenclature to the under-diagnosed form of infection, naming it a potentially deadly disease worthy of treatment.
Indeed, this paper describes findings that illuminate metabolic and epigenetic effects of Toxoplasma. This opens a biological blind on scientists' known of the infection and potential for formulating proper diagnostic and treatment algorithms for Toxoplasmosis. Not unexpectedly, the researchers focus here, however, on potential for curative pharmaceuticals and cry out for more research. They parrot medical conventions that postulate a clinical vacuum in terms of effective biochemical therapies for treatment of latent Toxoplasmosis.
Conventional postulations have been contentious for scientists signed on as authors of this paper. In prior publications by them, some have proposed and demonstrate protocols that show that existing therapies are not warranted in treatment of Toxoplasma infection, but useful. The parasite is known through nearly a century of research, to diminish individual function at cellular, neuro-endocrine and systematic levels including as cause of immune deregulation for its host.
In addition to humans, cats, livestock, other animals including coastal creatures, oysters, muscles and microbes with nucleated cells can all host Toxoplasma parasites. An infectious spore form of Toxoplasma can live for a year or more in water, ground water, on soil or dust [compelling but partial summaries in Weiss and Kim 2013]. Animal droppings and manure carry tissue cysts in which latent Toxoplasma cells multiply, so raw foods should be avoided. Uncooked or unfrozen food can be a risk, even with washing.
Indeed, identification of infection is as important as personalized treatment and nutritional supplementation. Recognizing Toxoplasma infection in clients referred to our practice, we have observed over years that it as an ever present and active pathogen that causes a vast array of medically unexplained symptoms, inflammation and serious concerns including age-related and potentially deadly disease attributed every other name. Symptoms vary by person because biology involves individual metabolic equations for cellular, immune and other systemic functions that add up to overall survival and potential for longevity.
Given its prevalence and effects on people, our pets, food and environment, Toxoplasma infection has been an area of specialized inquiry for us for many years. This has given us deep interest in nutrigenomic, metabolic, integrative and other science-backed approaches towards effective restoration of our client’s innate capacities for life.
We are grateful for opportunity to give people a handle on their own health and equip doctors for measurable improvements in quality of patient care, particularly with informed consideration of Toxoplasma as a factor in parasitosis. We are pleased to bridge science with practice, working with individuals and their health providers, with CoherenceClinic providing precise insights and specific protocols to prevent illness and recover nutritional and other key resources for lasting health.
Additional Background
Weiss LM and Kim K (2013), Toxoplasma Gondii, The Model Apicomplexan - Perspectives and Methods. Second Edition, Elesevier, Sept 2013.