A cat-borne parasite that infects about 40 million people in the United States may cause adults to be more frail as they age, according to a new University of Colorado Boulder study.
The parasite is already associated with risk-taking behavior and mental illness, according to a release, and the CU Boulder study found it may also contribute to signs of frailty including exhaustion and loss of muscle mass.
The parasite, called Toxoplasma gondii, affects about 11% of people in the United States, or roughly 40 million people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rates tend to be higher in older people, and in some countries, more than 60% of people have been infected, according to the CDC.
“We often think of T. gondii infection as relatively asymptomatic, but this study highlights that for some people it may have significant health consequences later on,” Christopher Lowry, CU Boulder professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology, said in a release.
For the study, the team examined the blood of 601 Spanish and Portuguese adults older than 65 and looked at frailty, including unintentional weight loss, tiredness and loss of cognition.
About 67% of study subjects showed markers in their blood of a latent infection, or an infection by the parasite that was inactive in their body and showed no symptoms.
The researchers did not, as they hypothesized, find an association between an infection to T. gondii and frailty, according to the study. However, they did find that those with a higher concentration of antibodies to the parasite were significantly more likely to be frail.
A higher concentration of antibodies could reflect a more virulent or widespread infection, multiple infections or recent reactivation of a latent infection, the release said.
How it’s spread
Wild and domestic cats are considered the definitive host of the parasite, while warm-blooded animals like birds and rodents are secondary hosts. When cats eat…
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