Shared Immune and Repair Markers During Experimental Toxoplasma Chronic Brain Infection and Schizophrenia.

ABSTRACT: Chronic neurologic infection with Toxoplasma gondii is relatively common in humans and is one of the strongest known risk factors for schizophrenia. Nevertheless, the exact neuropathological mechanisms linking T gondii infection and schizophrenia remain unclear. Here we utilize a mouse model of chronic T gondii infection to identify protein biomarkers that are altered in serum and brain samples at 2 time points during chronic infection. Furthermore, we compare the identified biomarkers to those differing between "postmortem" brain samples from 35 schizophrenia patients and 33 healthy controls. Our findings suggest that T gondii infection causes substantial and widespread immune activation indicative of neural damage and reactive tissue repair in the animal model that partly overlaps with c

SUBMITTER: Tomasik J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4753603 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature