That's fascinating reading. even for the layman. The relationship between the Legionnaires bacteria and amoeba is especially interesting. I kept thinking about the recent Playboy Mansion hot tub incident...eeeww. posted by Xoebe at 12:36 AM on April 24, 2011
I would have never thought of this as a mefi post, but it makes so much sense, Awesome!
Those interested in going one layer deeper might want to go here for an extremely well made wiki intended for microbiologists. posted by Blasdelb at 7:15 AM on April 24, 2011
That is super cool. I've been reading about toxoplasma which one third of the population has and seems to be involved in personality disorders, schizophrenia, and other mental disorders. Fascinating.
I think we're going to find that in conditions of lower immunity and lowered functioning of the blood brain barrier (which can be caused by hypoglycemia and a host of ther things)--- we're going to find the inflammation we see present in the brain can leak in for no reason (aka blood brain barrier problem or too high levels of inflammation elsewhere in the body) but we're also going to find that pathogens that can sometimes function symbiotically can begin to populate more without being kept in check and become harmful--- or that new pathogens will find it easier to get in to the brain.
Which is the reason I'm concerned about simply removing the inflammation--- in some cases it could be the bodies response to a pathogen or other toxin and removing the immune response could be a terrible idea. posted by xarnop at 7:56 AM on April 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
It's also a fine example of wikis as teaching tools. Inter-institutional teaching, to boot. posted by doctornemo at 8:28 AM on April 24, 2011
Thank you for these links. posted by ltracey at 9:35 AM on April 24, 2011
posted by Xoebe at 12:36 AM on April 24, 2011