Around a third of us are infected with a brain parasite called
Thissingle-celled creature spreads to humans from cats, and has a tendency to change the behaviour of its hosts. Now, a team of scientists led by Frederic Thomas and Kevin Lafferty have found that countries where more people are infected with the parasite have higher rates of brain cancer. This does not mean that T.gondii causes brain cancer, or even that the two are actually linked. Patricia McKinney, who studies brain cancer and was not involved in the study, says, “This is a technically sound hypothesis-generating paper and, viewed as such, is interesting. It doesn’t tell us much, other than pointing towards some further investigation.”
What is Toxoplasma gondii?
Humans can become infected with T.gondii, either through contact with soil contaminated by cat faeces, or by eating infected meat. These infections are extremely common, and up a ...
