Can Your Cat Cause Demonic Possession?

Cats are routinely associated with malevolent entities in horror stories. They are the favorite pet of witches and villains, a frequent denizen of haunted houses, and the object of several superstitions. Now doctors have linked felines to demonic possession!

Wait, what?

In a new case study published yesterday in the journal Medicine, scientists in China reported that acute infection with the common parasite Toxoplasma gondii triggered the onset of an unusual autoimmune disease called anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor encephalitis. Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis occurs when the body attacks one of its own brain proteins, leading to bizarre personality changes that mimic the stereotypical behaviors that come to mind when we think about demonic possession.

In this case report, a nine-year-old girl arrived at the hospital with seizures, headache, and vomiting. Then she developed unexplained personality and behavior changes. She tested positive for both anti-NMDA receptor antibodies and recent infection with the Toxoplasma parasite.

Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis was the subject of the bestselling book, Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, by Susannah Cahalan. In this memoir, which reads like an episode of Mystery Diagnosis, Cahalan describes her terrifying transformation from a vibrant young journalist to an unrecognizable and violent monster. As her condition progressed, she grew paranoid of others, thought family members were imposters, and lashed out at people. She lost control of her bodily movements, suffered seizures, and spoke in tongues. If you didn’t know better, you’d claim she needed an exorcist. Luckily, a neurologist properly diagnosed her disease and gave her immune suppressant drugs that drove it into remission.

Did Regan have a cat?

It is not clear why some people (mostly women) start making antibodies that attack the NMDA receptors in their brain. Some cases are linked to the development of tumors, especially teratomas in the ovaries. Certain viruses that infect the brain, including herpes simplex virus, have also been linked to anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. Now it seems Toxoplasma, which also infects the brain, may be a trigger of this haunting disease, too.

Toxoplasma is a devious parasite with a complex life cycle. It is capable of infecting any warm-blooded animal, but can only complete its sexual cycle in the intestines of cats. After infecting a cat, the cat spews billions of infectious parasite oocysts into the litter box (or the environment) for up to two weeks. These oocysts are very sturdy and can last up to two years in the environment, giving them plenty of time to be inhaled or ingested by another animal (including humans). In addition to picking up oocysts from the litter box, garden, or sandbox, we can also acquire the infection by eating undercooked meat or unwashed fruits and vegetables.

Once a person becomes infected, the parasite disseminates throughout bodily tissues, including the brain and heart, and transitions into a latent stage called the tissue cyst. While current treatments can stop the parasite from replicating, no drug exists that can get rid of the tissue cysts. In other words, infection with Toxoplasma is permanent. The thought of having a brain filled with these parasites is disquieting, but most scientists believe the cysts are inert unless the individual becomes immune compromised, in which case the parasites can cause massive tissue damage from unchecked growth.

A growing number of scientists argue, however, that in certain individuals the Toxoplasma tissue cysts are not benign and may cause neurological disorders. One of the better-established correlations is the link between Toxoplasma infection and schizophrenia. Interestingly, up to 10% of schizophrenia patients test positive for anti-NMDA receptor antibodies.

The mechanism explaining how Toxoplasma infection may cause anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis remains to be elucidated. Toxoplasma infection is remarkably common (up to one-third of the global population is believed to carry this parasite), but anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis is rare. For now, the authors of the study advise that clinicians assess the possibility of Toxoplasma infection when evaluating a patient with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis.

To prevent Toxoplasma infection and minimize your chances of becoming possessed by this parasite, be sure to thoroughly cook meat and wash produce and veggies. Wear gloves and a mask when gardening and keep sandboxes covered when not in use. You cannot catch Toxoplasma by petting your cat, but it is important to clean the litter box promptly and wash your hands with soap and water. Pregnant women, in particular, should heed these warnings as infection during pregnancy can lead to miscarriage or serious congenital birth defects. See the infographic below for more.

UPDATE (7/26/18): A new study was published today by Li et al. that used a mouse model of infection to show that anti-NMDA receptor autoantibodies are induced by the presence of latent Toxoplasma tissue cysts.

Brain on Fire has also been made into a movie that can be seen now on Netflix.

Contributed by: Bill Sullivan

Follow Bill on Twitter.

The Rise Of Superbugs: How Bacteria Defeat Antibiotics

News stations are constantly warning us about the threats of climate change, hackers, and another season of Fuller House, but what doesn't get enough press is the rise of superbugs. We're not referring to a new species of insect aliens from Starship Troopers, but rather old enemies right here on Earth. Enemies so small that a microscope is required to see them, yet so mighty that just a few of them can spell the end of your existence.

No, that's not what we mean by superbug. We're talking about pathogenic bacteria.

Throughout human history, we've been locked in an ongoing struggle with infectious disease. For much of our existence, pathogenic bacteria have wiped out huge swaths of people and kept our average life expectancy under 50 years. But thanks to the discovery of antibiotics in the early 20th century, most people are no longer dying from skin infections, pneumonia, and tuberculosis.

Alexander Fleming's discovery that a mold (Penicillium notatum) produces a substance (penicillin) capable of killing bacteria revolutionized medicine, giving us the upper hand in the war on infectious disease. However, we are now losing our advantage in this war.

Since the advent of penicillin in the 1940s, antibiotic discovery and research exploded, filling our medicine cabinets with lots of other wicked bacteria-killing drugs with crazy names like the macrolides, tetracyclines, fluoroquinolones, aminoglycosides, and more. By the 1960s, we became so complacent with our pharmacological arsenal that the majority of antibiotic research ground to a halt. Consequently, very few new antibiotics have been developed in the last half-century, leaving us caught with our pants down in the wake of bacteria that have evolved resistance to our current supply of antibiotic drugs.

Speaking of being caught with our pants down, a recent case in point is Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacteria that causes gonorrhea. Once easily treated with a shot of penicillin, gonorrhea has quietly evolved resistance to multiple types of antibiotics over the years. Since there is now a danger of gonorrhea being untreatable once again (!), Neisseria gonorrhoeae is considered a superbug by the CDC. Pat Benatar warned us that "Love is a Battlefield"...and now the Huey Lewis request, "I Want a New Drug", takes on an urgent new meaning.

Gonorrhea used to be a very serious infection before the discovery of antibiotics. Today, scientists are sounding the alarm that the bacteria responsible for the infection may no longer be treatable if it continues to evolve resistance and we fail to develop new antibiotics.

There are 26 antibiotic drugs approved for use in the US. Just this week, the news broke that an elderly woman died in Nevada after losing a battle with a stubborn superbug. She succumbed to an infection caused by CRE - carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae (carbapenem is one of our "last resort" antibiotics that is only used when others have failed). In other words, the bacteria that killed her was immune to every single antibiotic we have in our arsenal.

So how do bacteria develop resistance to our medicines? There are at least four different ways. One, bacteria can mutate, or change, the protein that is targeted by the antibiotic. For example, penicillin inhibits a bacterial enzyme called transpeptidase, which is required by the bacteria to build its cell wall properly. Bacteria that acquire a DNA mutation that makes a slightly different version of transpeptidase can become resistant to penicillin (the new version can still build the cell wall, but no longer interacts with penicillin). A related strategy bacteria can use involves increasing the amount of the drug target; in other words, the bacteria could make more transpeptidase - too much for the drug to inhibit effectively.

Two, the bacteria can acquire a gene that makes a protein called penicillinase, which can directly attack the penicillin compound and cut it up. Some bacteria already have this gene and can pass it along to other bacteria that do not have it. Penicillinase is like a bomb diffuser - the bacterial equivalent of Sergeant First Class William James in The Hurt Locker.

Three, bacteria can mutate proteins that are needed for the antibiotic to get into the bacteria cells. Finally, bacteria can also use "efflux" proteins to pump out the antibiotic. These two related strategies effectively keep the antibiotic out of the bacteria and away from its target. A cartoon summary of these mechanisms of antibiotic resistance is shown below.

In summary, bacteria have many ways to combat the drugs we use to kill them. We need to step up our game and fast if we want to stay ahead of the devastating infections bacteria inflict upon us. We need more kryptonite to defeat the superbugs!
 
For more on why bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics, check out this informative video from Everyday Elements.

Contributed by:  Bill Sullivan

Follow Bill on Twitter.

Blair, J., Webber, M., Baylay, A., Ogbolu, D., & Piddock, L. (2014). Molecular mechanisms of antibiotic resistance Nature Reviews Microbiology, 13 (1), 42-51 DOI: 10.1038/nrmicro3380

Star Wars Midi-chlorians On Earth?

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens was a HUGE success and is being released on Blu-ray and DVD today. Fans seems to be in agreement that J.J. Abrams did a better job reviving the franchise than George Lucas did with the Star Wars prequels, which caused a great disturbance in the Force.


While Jar Jar Binks soured the prequels for most people, one of the other sticking points was the Midi-chlorians. The what? Let's review. In the original series, the Force was described by Obi-Wan Kenobi as "an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together." In episode I, Qui-Gon Jinn delivered the buzzkill message that the mysterious Force actually had a biological explanation. Instead of saying, “The Force is strong with this one”, one may as well say, “The Midi-chlorians are numerous in this one.”


Watching the interview below, Abrams appeared to show disdain for the whole "Midi-chlorian" idea, not even mentioning them in the new film.

According to Wookieepedia, “Midi-chlorians were intelligent microscopic life forms that lived symbiotically inside the cells of all living things. When present in sufficient numbers, they could allow their host to detect the pervasive energy field known as the Force.” A collective groan could be felt through movie theatres worldwide, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror…

To a cell biologist, it sounds like Lucas drew his inspiration from the mitochondria, which are bacteria-like symbionts that work with our cells to provide energy. They even look like they might be cousins (see below). But that is where the similarities end. Unlike Midi-chlorians, mitochondria do not allow us to tap into energy fields…no matter how much we try to quiet our minds to hear our mitochondria speak to us.

Midi-chlorian (left) and mitochondria (right). Brothers from another mother?

 

But a strange and provocative paper by Alexander Panchin and colleagues proposes an unorthodox new idea called the “biomeme hypothesis”, which posits that the impulse behind some religious rituals could be driven by mind-altering parasites.

Let that sink in for a moment. Might your religion, or any number of other activities, be driven in part by parasites or symbionts in your brain? Before you dismiss the idea too quickly, think about the rabies virus. This super tiny virus is notorious for altering the behavior of dogs (and other animals, including people). Rabies can make even the most docile of dogs become uncharacteristically aggressive so that they bite and spread the virus. Rabies virus is just the tip of the iceberg; there is no shortage of parasites that are known to eerily alter their host’s behavior.

Rabies makes dogs aggressive to enhance viral transmission. The virus can get into a new host by causing its current host to bite others.

Central to Panchin’s hypothesis is the idea that certain religious rituals may facilitate the transmission and spread of parasites. The authors site that holy springs and holy water are replete with numerous microbes, including human pathogens. Sacred in Hinduism, the Ganges River probably contains the most, as an estimated 200 million liters of untreated human sewage is dumped into it every day. Bathing in this “purifying” water has led to the development of multiple diseases, such as cholera.  The Hindu “side-roll” ritual is associated with Cutaneous Larva Migrans, also known as “creeping eruption of the skin”, which is caused when the skin becomes infected with parasitic hookworm larvae. Performed in Muslim communities, ritual ablution, which involves irrigation of the sinuses, has been proposed to be a potential risk factor in contracting Naegleria fowleri (the infamous “brain-eating amoeba”) in Muslim communities. Outbreaks of respiratory infectious diseases and meningococcal disease are common amongst Hajj congregation in Mecca. The transmission of herpes has been reported in the Jewish circumcision method known as metzitzah, which involves the sucking of blood from the wound. Finally, many sacred relics are kissed or handled by many worshipers, offering additional routes for the potential transmission of multiple infectious agents.

While it is clearly demonstrable that certain religious rituals have inherent health risks, there currently is no direct evidence that any of the possible infections transmitted can influence the victim’s behavior (other than causing them to see a doctor). Until new data arrives, we are left with the conclusion that the rituals people engage in stem from cultural memes rather than biological. But one thing is clear:  you should use some hand sanitizer next time you dip your fingers in the holy water.

Contributed by:  Bill Sullivan
Follow Bill on Twitter

 

 

Panchin AY, Tuzhikov AI, & Panchin YV (2014). Midichlorians--the biomeme hypothesis: is there a microbial component to religious rituals? Biology direct, 9 (1) PMID: 24990702

Outbreak! Time To Review The Origins Of Vaccination

The US is currently experiencing an alarming spike in the number of measles cases. Yes, measles! Don’t we have a vaccine for that virus? Yes, we do. It first became available in 1963 and was so effective that by 2000 the US declared it had eliminated measles. But in 2014, a record 644 cases suddenly appeared in 23 distinct outbreaks.

Measles is caused by a very contagious virus that infects the respiratory system, causing high fevers, coughing, and a nasty rash. Complications are common and can lead to life-threatening situations, especially in undeveloped nations. Measles has rarely been seen in the US in recent decades, but has made an alarming resurgence in 2014-15.

Unfortunately, 2015 is shaping up to be a bad year for measles, too, largely due to a multi-state outbreak propagated by so-called anti-vaxxers attending Disneyland in California. A study published last month showed that this single incident has spread measles to seven states and two additional countries and was due to parents who declined to vaccinate their children. Sadly, many of those who were infected were innocent bystanders of this misguided decision - they could not be vaccinated due to age or a legitimate medical condition.

We’ve recently discussed some of the fears the anti-vaccine movement cites to justify their opposition to vaccination, much of which stems from the completely fraudulent studies of the disgraced doctor, Andrew Wakefield. But perhaps it is worthwhile to take a trip back in time to review the origins of vaccination, which begin with the horrifying disease called smallpox.

Referred to as “the Speckled Monster”, smallpox is caused by an extremely contagious virus with a signature “dumb-bell” appearance.

Once infected with the smallpox virus, the victim becomes covered head to toe with burning pustules. The virus can also infect internal organs, which usually meant death in less than a month. Those lucky enough to survive the infection were left badly scarred and disfigured. Humanity has been struggling with this dreadful affliction since at least 1100 BC. We know this because the mummy of Egyptian pharaoh Ramses V contains the signature pockmarks caused by smallpox. Recent genetic studies suggest that the smallpox virus emerged 3000 to 4000 years ago in east Africa.

Smallpox is one of a number of infectious agents that has been a major factor in steering the course of history. Smallpox was instrumental in the conquering of the Aztecs in 1521 by Hernan Cortes and the Incas by Pizarro in 1533. Disturbingly, the early Puritan settlers in North America considered smallpox a “miracle” that purged their “New World” of the Native Americans.

The first advance in treating smallpox, which hinted at a new era of medicine, was made around 950 AD in China. Someone took note that smallpox survivors never got the disease twice and got the idea that maybe by giving someone a tiny bit of the disease on purpose would protect them from the real thing. To do this, they took the scabs from someone who looked like they were beating the infection, ground them into a powder, and blew them up the nose of someone who hadn’t caught smallpox yet. It sounds disgusting, but it worked! The scab-sniffers got very mild cases of smallpox but recovered.

By the late 1600s, the Chinese practice of delivering smallpox scabs into healthy people to prevent the disease had been refined and spread to the Turkish Empire. As shown above, a drop of pus from a person beating smallpox was scratched into the skin to “inoculate” another person and prevent him or her from getting the full-blown disease. The technique spread to England thanks to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the ambassador to Turkey in the early 1700s.

These primitive vaccination efforts carried a great deal of risk compared to today’s methods. Since the individual was being inoculated with live smallpox virus, there was always a chance of developing full-blown smallpox and dying, along with the risk of transmitting smallpox to others. To offset the latter, England instituted “inoculation stables”, woeful low-cost sheds where peasant children were sent to stay until they either died or recovered from the smallpox inoculation.

Enter Dr. Edward Jenner. Born in 1749, he did time in an “inoculation stable” as a young lad. Smallpox may not have scarred his skin, but his experience in the stable scarred him psychologically. He decided to dedicate his life to finding a better way to beat the “Speckled Monster”. Just like the Chinese in 950 AD, keen observation is what led Jenner to an amazing breakthrough. But Jenner’s eureka moment didn’t occur in the lab or in the hospital. It came to him while observing…milkmaids.

Milkmaids had a reputation for always being pretty, with clear and smooth skin, largely because they never seemed to suffer smallpox and the extensive scarring it left in its wake. There was even a saying at the time, “If you want to marry a woman who will never be scarred by the pox, marry a milkmaid.”

In talking to milkmaids, Jenner learned that they frequently caught cowpox, a very mild disease carried by the cattle they handled every day. The milkmaids who caught cowpox would develop a few pustules on their hands that resolved on their own fairly quickly. But when Jenner proposed that cowpox was protecting the milkmaids from smallpox, most people wrote the idea off as superstitious nonsense.     

Jenner knew he had to conduct an experiment to prove the naysayers wrong. Jenner somehow convinced the parents of a young boy named James Phipps to be the guinea pig in his experiment. Jenner took cowpox pus from a milkmaid’s hand and scratched it into James’s arm. As expected, the boy developed a mild case of cowpox and recovered from it, unscathed. He called the process "vaccination" based on the Latin word for cow, "vacca". 

The next step was to see if the cowpox vaccination protected the boy from real live smallpox. So Jenner, probably with shaking hands, inoculated James with smallpox pus taken fresh from a victim at the height of the illness. Each day they waited for what must have seemed like an eternity, but James never came down with smallpox. Jenner was not only right, but his success also inspired others that we do not have to take infectious disease lying down. We can fight it.

Jenner tried 20 more times to inoculate James Phipps with smallpox, but the boy never showed a single pustule. What did James get for being used as a lab rat? Jenner built him a cottage, which is today the Jenner Museum.

So what is actually happening here? How does vaccination protect someone against an infectious disease? Unbeknownst to Jenner, we now know that microbes cause infectious disease – viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites. We also know that we are equipped with an immune system that battles these foreign invaders. A vaccine trains the immune system to recognize an invader before it conquers too much territory. Microbial invaders consist of foreign proteins (called antigens) that are recognized by immune cells as “non-self”. These immune cells take up to two weeks to fully kick into gear and destroy the invaders. In some cases, the invaders grow too fast or produce toxins and the immune system just can’t outpace the infection.

But when the immune system wins, it remembers the invader. If the pathogen dare challenge you again, your immune system reacts much more quickly, usually destroying the invader before you even experience symptoms. Vaccination allows your immune system to preview antigens from a weakened form of the virus (like smallpox from a pustule of a recovering patient) or a related virus that causes little or no disease (like cowpox), so it will be “primed and ready” for the real invader if it should come along.
 

With the first vaccination came the first anti-vaxxers. James Gillray, who drew this infamous cartoon in 1802, misled people into believing that Jenner’s cowpox inoculation would “bovinize” people, causing them to give birth to calves or have them spring out of the body. 

The word “virus” comes from a Latin word meaning “poisonous force”. Humanity has been battling these forces for thousands of years and through persistence and hard work, we finally hit upon a remarkably safe and effective antidote. To refuse the antidote may seem like a personal choice, but as evidenced by the recent measles outbreak, it puts all of us in danger.

Contributed by:  Bill Sullivan

Follow Bill on Twitter. Google+.

Majumder, M., Cohn, E., Mekaru, S., Huston, J., & Brownstein, J. (2015). Substandard Vaccination Compliance and the 2015 Measles Outbreak JAMA Pediatrics DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.0384

Babkin, I., & Babkina, I. (2015). The Origin of the Variola Virus Viruses, 7 (3), 1100-1112 DOI: 10.3390/v7031100

Marrin, Albert. “Dr. Jenner and the Speckled Monster”, Dutton Children’s Books, New York, 2002.

The Friday Five

Highlighting some of the coolest science news we’ve seen lately.

1. Ever get the feeling that your brain is slowing down? When people say, “Think fast!”, you usually respond in a day or two? Perhaps you’ve been infected by an algal virus (especially if you live in the Baltimore area where this study was conducted). A virus (ATCV-1) that typically infects green algae can also infect human brain tissue, and now a study has shown a link in those who are infected with slowed brain activity.

This algal virus can infect people too, and may make them slower on the draw with shorter attention spans.

 

2. Do you think you know the primary colors? How about the number of senses that we have? You might be surprised at the true answers. Read on to learn the truth about five things we were taught in science class.

3. Everyone’s favorite attraction at the fair is the daring performer who eats and breathes fire. In the video below, you can learn the chemistry behind fire eating and why the performers don’t melt their faces off.
 

4. Thanks to lessons from computer science, it may be possible to “debug” our brains in ways that parallel how programmers edit bad code. Read it now before you get distra---oh, look, a squirrel!

 

5. And now…5 of the craziest science stunts that teachers won’t show you in school. Except maybe this teacher.

 

Science quote of the week:

“Exploring the unknown requires tolerating uncertainty.” –Brian Greene

Contributed by:  Bill Sullivan

Follow Bill on Twitter: @wjsullivan

Yolken, R., Jones-Brando, L., Dunigan, D., Kannan, G., Dickerson, F., Severance, E., Sabunciyan, S., Talbot, C., Prandovszky, E., Gurnon, J., Agarkova, I., Leister, F., Gressitt, K., Chen, O., Deuber, B., Ma, F., Pletnikov, M., & Van Etten, J. (2014). Chlorovirus ATCV-1 is part of the human oropharyngeal virome and is associated with changes in cognitive functions in humans and mice Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1418895111

The Friday Five

Highlighting some of the coolest science news we’ve seen lately.

1. Sci-fi fans across the universe were “stunned” to learn that most space battles in the movies simply aren’t possible. Watch the video below to learn more about “The Physics of Space Battles”.

 

2. Everyone has probably heard by now that bats transmit Ebola, but these critters are vectors for many other diseases, too. Learn why in the video below. A recent review on bat flight and zoonotic viruses can be found here.

 

3. Here is an amazing video of a monster red leech devouring a giant worm. Real world Godzilla-like action!

 

4. Sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia. What do you mean you don’t know what that is? Did you just eat some ice cream or something?

 

 5. This is a hell of a good video that reveals some psychological tricks to get others to do what you want. Watch it now, dammit! And let me know if the swearing trick worked!

Science quote of the week:

“The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.” –Neil deGrasse Tyson

Contributed by:  Bill Sullivan

Follow Bill on Twitter: @wjsullivan


O'Shea TJ, Cryan PM, Cunningham AA, Fooks AR, Hayman DT, Luis AD, Peel AJ, Plowright RK, & Wood JL (2014). Bat flight and zoonotic viruses. Emerging infectious diseases, 20 (5), 741-5 PMID: 24750692

Midi-chlorians gave Jedi knights their power. Is there something like this on Earth?

Star Wars Episode VII is happening, to the cautious delight of many longtime fans of the franchise. Replacing George Lucas at the helm is J.J. Abrams, who successfully rebooted the Star Trek franchise.

The cast for Star Wars Episode VII meeting with Yoda J.J. Abrams

Fans are waiting with bated breath to see whether he does a better job than Lucas did with the Star Wars prequels, which caused a great disturbance in the Force. While Jar Jar Binks soured the prequels for most people, one of the other sticking points was the Midi-chlorians. The what? Let's review. In the original series, the Force was described by Obi-Wan Kenobi as "an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together." In episode I, Qui-Gon Jinn delivered the buzzkill message that the mysterious Force actually had a biological explanation. Instead of saying, “The Force is strong with this one”, one may as well say, “The Midi-chlorians are numerous in this one.”

According to Wookieepedia, “Midi-chlorians were intelligent microscopic life forms that lived symbiotically inside the cells of all living things. When present in sufficient numbers, they could allow their host to detect the pervasive energy field known as the Force.” A collective groan could be felt through movie theatres worldwide, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror…

To a cell biologist, it sounds like Lucas drew his inspiration from the mitochondria, which are bacteria-like symbionts that work with our cells to provide energy. They even look like they might be cousins (see below). But that is where the similarities end. Unlike Midi-chlorians, mitochondria do not allow us to tap into energy fields…no matter how much we try to quiet our minds to hear our mitochondria speak to us.

Midi-chlorian (left) and mitochondria (right). Brothers from another mother?

 

But a strange and provocative paper by Alexander Panchin and colleagues proposes an unorthodox new idea called the “biomeme hypothesis”, which posits that the impulse behind some religious rituals could be driven by mind-altering parasites.

Let that sink in for a moment. Might your religion, or any number of other activities, be driven in part by parasites or symbionts in your brain? Before you dismiss the idea too quickly, think about the rabies virus. This super tiny virus is notorious for altering the behavior of dogs (and other animals, including people). Rabies can make even the most docile of dogs become uncharacteristically aggressive so that they bite and spread the virus. Rabies virus is just the tip of the iceberg; there is no shortage of parasites that are known to eerily alter their host’s behavior.

Rabies makes dogs aggressive to enhance viral transmission. The virus can get into a new host by causing its current host to bite others.

Central to Panchin’s hypothesis is the idea that certain religious rituals may facilitate the transmission and spread of parasites. The authors site that holy springs and holy water are replete with numerous microbes, including human pathogens. Sacred in Hinduism, the Ganges River probably contains the most, as an estimated 200 million liters of untreated human sewage is dumped into it every day. Bathing in this “purifying” water has led to the development of multiple diseases, such as cholera.  The Hindu “side-roll” ritual is associated with Cutaneous Larva Migrans, also known as “creeping eruption of the skin”, which is caused when the skin becomes infected with parasitic hookworm larvae. Performed in Muslim communities, ritual ablution, which involves irrigation of the sinuses, has been proposed to be a potential risk factor in contracting Naegleria fowleri (the infamous “brain-eating amoeba”) in Muslim communities. Outbreaks of respiratory infectious diseases and meningococcal disease are common amongst Hajj congregation in Mecca. The transmission of herpes has been reported in the Jewish circumcision method known as metzitzah, which involves the sucking of blood from the wound. Finally, many sacred relics are kissed or handled by many worshipers, offering additional routes for the potential transmission of multiple infectious agents.

While it is clearly demonstrable that certain religious rituals have inherent health risks, there currently is no direct evidence that any of the possible infections transmitted can influence the victim’s behavior (other than causing them to see a doctor). Until new data arrives, we are left with the conclusion that the rituals people engage in stem from cultural memes rather than biological. But one thing is clear:  you should use some hand sanitizer next time you dip your fingers in the holy water.

Contributed by:  Bill Sullivan
Follow Bill on Twitter

 

 

Panchin AY, Tuzhikov AI, & Panchin YV (2014). Midichlorians--the biomeme hypothesis: is there a microbial component to religious rituals? Biology direct, 9 (1) PMID: 24990702