Come here to see what I have been reading and thinking about recently!
Theileria-transformed bovine leukocytes have most of the hallmarks of cancer
The genus Theileria includes tick-transmitted apicom- plexan parasites of ruminants with substantial economic impact in endemic countries. Some species, including Theileria parva and Theileria annulata, infect leukocytes where they induce phenotypes that are shared with some cancers, most notably immortalization, hyperpro- liferation, and dissemination. Despite considerable re- search into the affected host signaling pathways, the parasite proteins directly responsible for these host phenotypes remain unknown. In this review we outline current knowledge on the manipulation of host cells by transformation-inducing Theileria, and we propose that comparisons between cancer biology and host–Theileria interactions can reveal chemotherapeutic targets against Theileria-induced pathogenesis based on cancer treatment approaches.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S147149221500077X
Theileria annulata is found to irreversibly change host gene expression, even after removal of the parasite:
As the only eukaryotic parasite to transform it's host cell, inducing cellular immortality, Theileria parasites were previously assumed that this transformation was reversible. This paper provides (a) one of the first transcriptome-wide views of expression changes associated with infection of a cell line (along with http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22533473) and (b) perhaps the first evidence that these changes are not all reversible, since they found that some host genes did not reverse expression upon clearing the parasite, and even the infected cell line died after clearing the parasite. Since the uninfected cell line survived the chemical treatment (below), there must be some mechanism of apoptosis in the host after parasite clearance. On a per-cell basis, these parasites really do seem to create zombies.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3694138/pdf/pone.0066833.pdf
