PSYC 388 Chapter Notes - Chapter 13: Testicular Cancer, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Precancerous Condition
16 Nov 2020
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Today, malaria is disease of the tropics where it affects b/w 300 million & 500 million people, of whom about 2 million people die. Plasmodium has evolved effective resistance to quinine-based drugs & there is now some urgency in need to develop effective malaria interventions. What makes malaria quintessential chronobiological disease - rhythmic nature of illness. Depending on plasmodium species, 2, 3, or 4 days after first rupture of red blood cells, another wave of erythrocytes rupture & parasites are synchronously released. If plasmodium parasite grown to erythrocytes in culture, synchronicity of release rapidly lost. When pineal removed from melatonin-producing mice infected w/ plasmodium, there is also loss of synchronicity of erythrocyte rupture. Experiments suggest that timing signal comes from host. Essentially, plasmodium captures host"s timing mechanism & turns it back on host so as to increase its infectivity. Host melatonin triggers cascade of events leading to release of calcium ions from.
