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Harnessing a brain parasite as a tool for delivery of therapeutics to the brain

Toxoplasma gondii, a eukaryotic brain parasite that infects one in three people worldwide, was engineered to deliver therapeutics to neurons in the mouse brain. This technology opens the door to deliver multiple large proteins that have been undeliverable with previous approaches. Further development, such as vector attenuation, will be necessary for many applications.

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Fig. 1: Engineered T. gondii delivers functional proteins to neurons throughout the brain.

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This is a summary of: Bracha, S. et al. Engineering Toxoplasma gondii secretion systems for intracellular delivery of multiple large therapeutic proteins to neurons. Nat. Microbiol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01750-6 (2024).

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Harnessing a brain parasite as a tool for delivery of therapeutics to the brain. Nat Microbiol 9, 1914–1915 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01772-0

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