By Stuart Fox Posted 03.09.2010 at 3:28 pm 20 Comments

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.

A Brain Cyst Writhing With Toxoplasmid Parasites :  DJP Feruson/University of Oxford, via Cosmos Magazine
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.

The researchers don't want to just stop at toxoplasmosis, either. If this technique works on one parasite, than malaria, another blood-infecting parasite, should also be susceptible to the same laser annihilation.

[Cosmos Magazine]

20 Comments

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CasperSPT
03/09/10 at 3:50 pm

"...infects around 15 percent of the US population." Really 15%?

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dmcPegaso
03/09/10 at 4:08 pm

Most people are asymptomatic, it often only comes out when the immune system is suppressed as with AIDS. It can also be transmitted to the fetus during pregnancy and is particularly dangerous to the little ones.

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yourtelegrapher
03/09/10 at 4:44 pm

There is a typo in the last paragraph. It should be "then mosquitos" not "than mosquitos". Come on Popsci, I know you have not only Microsoft Word but also competent editors.

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astraldata
03/09/10 at 5:40 pm

now it's "than malaria" lol.

I guess they didn't notice. :/

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Tsad Jatko
03/11/10 at 7:34 am

"If this technique works" yeah right, science fiction if I ever saw it...not in a million years!

I have some pipe dreams better than that - you want to print them too?

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genedoug
03/11/10 at 8:51 pm

1 in 6 has it. If 30 people are in a room, 5 of them have it? Jeeez!

So how do I learn if I have it?

And if I can convince the public that they might have it, what could I sell to prevent or treat it?

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imongi
03/12/10 at 8:07 pm

I should add gold to my portfolio =P Those commercials are right!

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superduperster
03/12/10 at 8:40 pm

I don't think the percentage (15%) is accurate, but if the disease itself is then I think that this treatment (or others) is worth looking into.

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Ruri
03/13/10 at 5:49 am

One problem the bone is not exactly transparent to any form of light other then X-rays, some ave lengths of radio waves, and gamma rays.

In short a parasite in the brain would have little to fear from their laser.

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darkslategrey
03/14/10 at 7:17 am

uh, bone /isn't/ transparent to x-rays. which is why it shows up on an x-ray.

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The Famous
03/15/10 at 2:42 pm

pwned

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californiasteven
03/19/10 at 11:15 pm

I have heard this from other sources about the parasite. I probably have it since as kids our pet cats lived outside. The plan to burn them up makes sense to me, but what do I know? I'm a crazy cat person.

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DimitriTheBold
06/02/10 at 7:29 pm

15% !!!
This is most troubling. I also wonder how exactly does this disease cost 7.7 billion .
| Written by Dimitri from Eat Healthier Foods |

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adam2
07/04/10 at 5:41 am

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adam2
07/04/10 at 5:43 am

nice post..thanks for the great sharing.
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My Tachyonic Au...
08/12/10 at 6:43 pm

This technique sounds exactly like Kanzius RF Therapy, which was first proposed years ago as a treatment for cancer.
Sincerely,
My Tachyonic Auntie Persephone

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Kettering
08/15/10 at 1:13 am

Most people are asymptomatic, it often only comes out when the immune system is suppressed as with AIDS. It can also be transmitted to the fetus during pregnancy and is particularly dangerous to the little ones.

Kettering
http://burnwiigames.org/

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aseptic
11/30/10 at 7:23 am

That sound good for patient, who got sick with "Crazy Cat Lady" Syndrome.

aseptic
http://nex5camera.com

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alasiri5
12/04/10 at 8:14 am

I have heard this from other sources about the parasite. I probably have it since as kids our pet cats lived outside. The plan to burn them up makes sense to me, but what do I know? I'm a crazy cat person.
www.tran33m.com/vb/


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