Posted on 03/09/2010 6:41:03 PM PST by JoeProBono
Toxoplasmosis, a common food- and pet-borne illness linked to hallucinations, personality alteration, and, since it's often carried by house pets, the stereotype of the crazy cat lady, infects around 15 percent of the US population. Luckily, a new technique that traps the parasite with gold nanoparticles, and then zaps them with lasers, should help ease the $7.7 billion the disease costs America every year.
The treatment, developed at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, uses gold nanoparticles that attach to toxoplasmid-hunting antibodies. The gold carrying-antibodies then spread through the circulatory system, affixing themselves to parasites in the blood.
Once the gold particles are well distributed and widely attached to the parasite, the laser heats up the gold, incinerating the parasites. According to the researchers, the laser could be tuned to the so-called "tissue window", a wavelength of light to which the human body appears transparent. That way, the laser can pass harmlessly through the skin, burning up the parasites along the way
Cute. One of Shelob’s children?
That little guy has to molt a few more times, before he’s big enough for a sandwich.
It comes from the red diapers some of their parents used.
Isn’t this actress Karen Black?
LOL, yup!
When I read this to my husband last night, he said all 15% is right here in our house.... waaaaaa
Ah heck. People have been ingesting parasites for millenia. Just eat the food and enjoy it
I’m on your side. My feline masters so order it.
lolol
works for me ;)
Maureen Dowd is saved!
It’s the same parasite that causes rodents to lose their fear of cats, too, if I’m not mistaken.
So, writ large, you have an explanation for environuts getting attacked by bears in zoos, or eaten by Grizzlies after inexplicably losing fear of them.
You have an explanation for ‘Rats in general, actually. They can’t recognize a predator anymore, human or otherwise.
When my two kittens had toxoplasmosis the vet gave me a drug that healed them right up without a problem. They were in pretty bad shape.
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