![Understanding Parasite Growth]()
Toxoplasma gondii is the single-celled parasite that causes toxoplasmosis. People become infected in a number of ways, including eating undercooked contaminated meat and through exposure to cat feces that contain the parasite. Toxoplasma can cause serious and sometimes fatal illness in infants, pregnant women and people with weak immune systems. Understanding how T. gondii replicates may lead to strategies for inhibiting the parasite’s growth in humans. In a study published in the November 11, 2015 issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Kami Kim, M.D., and colleagues found that a significant number of proteins involved in T. gondii cell division are ubiquitinated, meaning that the protein ubiquitin has been added to them. Ubiquitination can affect proteins in several ways—altering their activity or signaling that the proteins should be degraded, for example. Importantly, many of these ubiquitinated proteins differ from the ubiquitinated proteins found in humans, which suggests that drugs targeting T. gondii’s ubiquitinated proteins would not harm patients. Dr. Kim is professor of medicine, of pathology and of microbiology & immunology.
Posted on: Friday, January 29, 2016