Breaking the Parasite’s Code

At Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, parasitologist Rajshekhar Gaji discovered that disabling a single protein, TgAP2X-7, kills Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite infecting about 40 million Americans and one-third of the global population. Normally dormant in healthy people, Toxoplasma can become deadly when immunity weakens or during pregnancy. Current drugs only target the acute stage, leaving the chronic brain infection untreatable.

Gaji’s lab found that TgAP2X-7, a transcription factor unlike any human protein, is essential for parasite survival, making it an ideal drug target. His team is also studying a family of TKL kinases, eight molecular “master switches” that control key parasite functions. Since Toxoplasma completes its life cycle in cats, this research could advance both Veterinary and human medicine, potentially informing treatments for similar parasites like those causing malaria. Gaji’s work lays the groundwork for new therapies that may finally neutralize this silent global pathogen.