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Animals can Build Parasitic Tolerance
STATE COLLEGE, Pa., Nov. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists discovered that animals,
like plants, can build tolerance to infections at a genetic level.
Pennsylvania
State University evolutionary biologists said their finding could lead
to a better understanding of the epidemiology and evolution of infectious
disease.
Plant pathologists
have long known plants deal with parasites by either developing resistance
or becoming more tolerant to disease.
Lead researcher
Professor Andrew Read along with Assistant Professor Lars Raberg and senior
research assistant Derek Sim exposed five different strains of mice to
malaria and monitored the rate at which the mice lost weight and red blood
cells. They found the number of days it took for the parasites to reach
peak density differed in the five mouse strains, indicating varying levels
of resistance.
Analyzing density
of red blood cells and minimum weight against the density of the parasites,
they discovered that as the parasites increased, some mice became sicker
more slowly than others.
The scientists
said they were also surprised to find tolerance and resistance are negatively
related -- the mice can either kill parasites or tolerate them but they
cannot do both.
