Establishment of a murine model of congenital toxoplasmosis and validation of a qPCR assay to assess the parasite load in maternal and fetal tissues.

is the causative agent of toxoplasmosis, a disease that affects warm-blooded animals and one third of the human population worldwide. Pregnant women who have never been exposed to the parasite constitute an important risk group, as infection during pregnancy often leads to congenital toxoplasmosis, the most severe form of the disease. Current therapy for toxoplasmosis is the same as it was 50 years ago and has little or no effect when vertical transmission occurs.

Extracellular Traps Released by Neutrophils from Cats are Detrimental to Infectivity.

is the causative agent of toxoplasmosis, an infectious disease that affects over 30% of the human world population, causing fatal infections in immunocompromised individuals and neonates. The life cycle of is complex, and involves intermediate hosts (birds and mammals) and definitive hosts (felines, including domestic cats). The innate immune repertoire against the parasite involves the production of neutrophil extracellular traps (NET), and neutrophils from several intermediate hosts produce NET induced by .