Toxoplasmosis is one of the world's most prevalent zoonoses. The causative agent, Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908) is a facultative heteroxenic, polyxenic apicomplexan protist. There are several potential pathways of transmission within and between host species. Most infections with T. gondii result from close contact with pets/cats, ingestion of tissue cysts in undercooked meat of infected animals, and oocysts from food or water contaminated by feline faeces. Recently, epidemiological studies have shown that T. gondii infection plays a prominent role in the pathogenesis of several psychiatric disorders. This report reviews the association between T. gondii infection and patients with psychiatric disorders, particularly schizophrenia, depressive disorders and bipolar disorders.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and depressive disorders (DD) are two of the most prevalent health problems in the world. Although CVD and depression have different origin, they share some common pathophysiological characteristics and risk factors, such as the increased production of proinflammatory cytokines, endothelial dysfunction, blood flow abnormalities, decreased glucose metabolism, elevated plasma homocysteine levels, oxidative stress and disorder in vitamin D metabolism. Current findings confirm the common underlying factors for both pathologies, which are related to dramatic dietary changes in the mid-19th century. By changing dietary ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids from 1:1 to 15-20:1 some changes in metabolism were induced, such as increased pro-inflammatory mediators and m odulations of different signaling pathways following pathophysiological response related to both, cardiovascular diseases and depressive disorders., J. Trebatická, A. Dukát, Z. Ďuračková, J. Muchová., and Obsahuje bibliografii