Contacts with environmental biodiversity affect human health: links revealed during the initial waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The gradual decrease in the prevalence of serious infectious diseases over the last century has been followed by increase in so called "modern" diseases, including allergies, chronic inflammatory conditions, psychiatric, and metabolic disorders. Between 2019 and 2022, public awareness of the threat of infectious diseases in humans was renewed by the global pandemic of a new type of a coronavirus, the SARS-COV-2. This public interest opened improved possibilities to test hypotheses on the factors associated with inter-individual variation in susceptibility to infectious and "modern" diseases. Based on the Hygiene hypothesis and Biodiversity hypothesis, we predicted that contacts with natural environment and wildlife in childhood and/or in adulthood can improve general health and decrease the risks of severe COVID-19 progression or prevalence of the "modern" diseases, namely the allergies. Here we report the results of an online, self-evaluating questionnaire survey conducted in the Czech Republic, where we contrasted selected health issues, and linked them to the living environment, including the level of contacts with biodiversity. In a sample of 1188 respondents, we revealed a significant association of time spent in nature or contacts with biodiversity with physical and mental health, or incidence of allergies. This is unlike the COVID-19 progression, which was related to age, physical health, smoking, allergies, and interaction of age with smoking, but not to contacts with the natural environmental diversity. Our findings regarding to physical and mental health and allergies are in agreement with the Biodiversity hypothesis of allergy and, linking human and environmental health, they urge for One Health approach application.

Cognitive Effects of Toxoplasma and CMV Infections: A Cross-Sectional Study of 557 Young Adults Considering Modulation by Sex and Rh Factor.

One-third of humanity harbors a lifelong infection with Toxoplasma gondii, and probably about 80% are infected with human cytomegalovirus (CMV). This study aims to delineate the associations between toxoplasmosis and cognitive abilities and compare these to the associations with CMV. We evaluated the cognitive performance of 557 students, who had been examined for Toxoplasma and CMV infections, using intelligence, memory, and psychomotor tests. The results indicated cognitive impairments in seropositive individuals for both pathogens, with variations in cognitive impact related to sex and the Rh factor. Specifically, Toxoplasma infection was associated with lower IQ in men, whereas CMV was predominantly associated with worse performance by women when testing memory and reaction speeds. Analysis of the antibody concentrations indicated that certain Toxoplasma-associated cognitive detrimental effects may wane (impaired intelligence) or worsen (impaired reaction times) over time following infection. The findings imply that the cognitive impairments caused by both neurotropic pathogens are likely due to pathological changes in the brain rather than from direct manipulative action by the parasites.

Oral Sex as a Potential Route for Toxoplasma Gondii Transmission: Experiment with Human Semen and Laboratory Mice Model.

PURPOSE: Toxoplasma gondii is one of the most widespread parasites in the human population globally. Several modes of its transmission have been proposed: some are well-researched and confirmed, others remain unconfirmed. One unconfirmed hypothesis pertains to potential transmission of Toxoplasma gondii via oral sex (fellatio) in humans. A recent study found tissue cysts in the semen of men with latent toxoplasmosis. Therefore, we aimed to test the hypothesis of Toxoplasma gondii transmission through oral sex experimentally. METHODS: Eighty-two laboratory mice were orally administered semen samples from 41 men with latent toxoplasmosis. These semen samples were examined for the presence of Toxoplasma gondii DNA using PCR. RESULTS: We detected Toxoplasma gondii DNA in three of the 41 semen samples from men with latent toxoplasmosis. Oral administration of semen samples to laboratory mice did not result in parasite transmission. CONCLUSION: We have not demonstrated the transmission of Toxoplasma to mice by oral exposure to semen from infected men. While this does not conclusively rule out the possibility of such transmission in humans, the results suggest that, if it does occur, this mode of transmission is likely infrequent.

Fertility of Czech Gay and Straight Men, Women, and Their Relatives: Testing the Sexually Antagonistic Gene Hypothesis.

One proposal for the persistence of homosexuality in the human population is the sexually antagonistic gene hypothesis, which suggests that the lower fertility of homosexual individuals, especially men, may be compensated by higher fertility of their relatives of the opposite sex. To test this hypothesis, we have collected data from 7,312 heterosexual men, 459 gay men, 3,352 heterosexual women, and 79 lesbian women mainly from Czechia. In an online survey, participants answered questions regarding their own as well as their parents' and grandparents' fertility. For men, we obtained no significant results except for higher fertility of gay men's paternal grandmothers, but the magnitude of this effect was very small. For the female sample, we recorded lower fertility of lesbian women's mothers and fathers. In line with our expectations, both gay men and lesbian women had lower fertility rates than their heterosexual counterparts. Our results are consistent with recent studies which likewise do not support the sexually antagonistic gene hypothesis.

Parasitic manipulation or side effects? The effects of past Toxoplasma gondii and Borrelia spp. infections on human personality and cognitive performance are not mediated by impaired health.

Bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi s. l. and even more the protist Toxoplasma gondii Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908, are known to affect the behaviour and mental health of their animal and human hosts. Both pathogens infect a significant fraction of human population, both are neurotropic and survive in the host's body for a long time. While latent infections were thought to be clinically asymptomatic, recent studies suggest otherwise, revealing adverse effects on human health. It was hypothesised that the specific behavioural effects of these pathogens may be side effects of general health impairments in infected individuals. This hypothesis was tested using about one hour-long survey consisting of questionnaires and performance tests on a cohort of 7,762 members of the internet population. Results showed that individuals infected with T. gondii reported worse physical and mental health, and those infected with Borrelia spp. reported worse physical health than uninfected controls. Furthermore, infected and noninfected individuals differed in several personality traits, including conscientiousness, pathogen disgust, injury disgust, Machiavellianism, narcissism, tribalism, anti-authoritarianism, intelligence, reaction time, and precision. While the majority of behavioural effects associated with Borrelia infection were similar to those associated with Toxoplasma infection, some differences were observed, such as performance in the Stroop test. Path analyses and nonparametric partial Kendall correlation tests showed that these effects were not mediated by impaired health in infected individuals, contradicting the side effects hypothesis.

Is recovery just the beginning? Persistent symptoms and health and performance deterioration in post-COVID-19, non-hospitalized university students-a cross-sectional study.

Many individuals experience persistent symptoms such as deteriorated physical and mental health, increased fatigue, and reduced cognitive performance months after recovering from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). There is limited data on the long-term trajectory and prevalence of these symptoms, especially in milder cases. Our study aimed to assess the persistent effects of COVID-19 on physical and mental health, fatigue, and cognitive performance in a cohort of 214 students, averaging 21.8 years of age. Of these, 148 had contracted COVID-19 but were not hospitalized, with the time since infection ranging from 1 to 39 months. We utilized a comprehensive panel of cognitive tests to measure intelligence, memory, and psychomotor skills, and a detailed anamnestic questionnaire to evaluate physical and mental health. While contracting COVID-19 did not significantly impact overall health and performance, it was associated with increased reports of fatigue. However, the reported severity of the disease had a pronounced negative influence on physical health, mental well-being, fatigue, and reaction time. Trends of improvement in physical and mental health, as well as error rate, were observed within the first 2 years post-infection. However, fatigue and reaction time showed a trend of deterioration. Beyond the 2-year mark, physical health and error rate continued to improve, while mental health began to deteriorate. Fatigue and reaction time continued to decline. Overall, our findings suggest that some effects of contracting COVID-19 can persist or even deteriorate over time, even in younger individuals who had mild cases that did not require hospitalization.

COVID's long shadow: How SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 severity, and vaccination status affect long-term cognitive performance and health.

COVID-19 affects a variety of organs and systems of the body including the central nervous system. Recent research has shown that COVID-19 survivors often experience neurological and psychiatric complications that can last for months after infection. We conducted a large Internet study using online tests to analyze the effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 severity, and vaccination on health, intelligence, memory, and information processing precision and speed in a cohort of 4445 subjects. We found that both SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity were associated with negative impacts on patients' health. Furthermore, we observed a negative association between COVID-19 severity and cognitive performance. Younger participants had a higher likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 contraction, while the elderly had a higher likelihood of severe COVID-19 and vaccination. The association between age and COVID-19 severity was primarily mediated by older participants' impaired long-term health. Vaccination was positively associated with intelligence and the precision of information processing. However, the positive association between vaccination and intelligence was likely mediated by achieved education, which was itself strongly associated with the likelihood of being vaccinated.

Exposing and exploiting host-parasite arms race clues in SARS-CoV-2: a principally new method for improved T cell immunogenicity prediction.

Computational prediction of T cell epitopes is a crucial component in the development of novel vaccines. T cells in a healthy vertebrate host can recognize as non-self only those peptides that are present in the parasite's proteins but absent in the host's proteins. This principle enables us to determine the current and past host specificity of a parasite and to predict peptides capable of eliciting a T cell response. Building upon the detailed mapping of T cell clone specificity for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antigens, we employed Monte Carlo tests to determine that empirically confirmed T cell-stimulating peptides have a significantly increased proportion of pentapeptides, hexapeptides and heptapeptides not found in the human proteome (P < 0.0001, Cohen's d > 4.9). We observed a lower density of potential pentapeptide targets for T cell recognition in the spike protein from the human-adapted SARS-CoV-2 ancestor compared to 10 other SARS-CoV-2 proteins originating from the horseshoe bat-adapted ancestor. Our novel method for predicting T cell immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 peptides is four times more effective than previous approaches. We recommend utilizing our theory-based method where efficient empirically based algorithms are unavailable, such as in the development of certain veterinary vaccines, and combining it with empirical methods in other cases for optimal results.

Presence of Toxoplasma gondii tissue cysts in human semen: Toxoplasmosis as a potential sexually transmissible infection.

OBJECTIVES: Toxoplasma gondii is a widely prevalent protozoan parasite in human populations. This parasite is thought to be primarily transmitted through undercooked meat and contamination by cat feces. Here, we seek to determine if Toxoplasma gondii cysts can be found within human semen. METHODS: We used a mixture of histological and immunofluorescence stains to visualize Toxoplasma gondii cysts in thin smears of human semen. Further, we probed for presence of bradyzoite-specific mRNA transcription using in-situ hybridization. RESULTS: We visualized Toxoplasma gondii cysts in ejaculates of immune-competent and latently infected human volunteers. We confirmed the encystment by probing transcription of a bradyzoite-specific gene in these structures. These observations extend previous observations of the parasite in semen of several non-human host species, including rats, dogs, and sheep. CONCLUSIONS: Toxoplasma gondii infection is a clinically significant infection, in view of its high prevalence, its purported role in neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, as well as in the more serious form of congenital toxoplasmosis. Our demonstration of intact Toxoplasma gondii cysts in the ejaculate supports the possibility of sexual transmission of the parasite and provides an impetus for further investigations.

The effects of 105 biological, socioeconomic, behavioral, and environmental factors on the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and a severe course of COVID-19: a prospective, explorative cohort study.

The confirmed number of SARS-CoV-2 infections up to 18 October 2022 is 626 million worldwide, but information about factors affecting the probability of infection or a severe course of COVID-19 remains insufficient and often speculative. Only a small number of factors have been rigorously examined, mostly by retrospective or cross-sectional studies.We ran a preregistered study on 5164 Internet users who shared information with us about their exposure to 105 risk factors and reported being COVID-19 negative before the beginning of the fourth wave of COVID-19 in the Czech Republic. After the fourth wave, in which 709 (13.7%) of participants were infected, we used a partial Kendall test controlled for sex, age, and urbanization to compare the risk of infection and a severe course of the disease in subjects who initially did and did not report exposure to particular risk factors.After the correction for multiple tests, we identified 13 factors - including male sex, lower age, blood group B, and larger household size - that increased the risk of infection and 16 factors - including mask-wearing, borreliosis in the past, use of vitamin D supplements, or rooibos drinking - that decreased it. We also identified 23 factors that increased the risk of a severe course of COVID-19 and 12 factors that decreased the risk.This preregistered longitudinal study is of explorative nature. Therefore, although the observed effects were strong and remained highly significant even after correction for multiple tests, it will be necessary to confirm their existence in future independent studies.

Redheaded women are more sexually active than other women, but it is probably due to their suitors.

Women with red hair color, i.e., 1-9% of female Europeans, tend to be the subject of various stereotypes about their sexually liberated behavior. The aim of the present case-control study was to explore whether a connection between red hair color and sexual behavior really exists using data from 110 women (34% redheaded) and 93 men (22% redheaded). Redheadedness in women, correlated with various traits related to sexual life, namely with higher sexual desire as measured by Revised Sociosexual Orientation Inventory, with higher sexual activity and more sexual partners of the preferred gender over the past year, earlier initiation of sexual life, and higher sexual submissiveness. Structural equation modelling, however, showed that sexual desire of redheaded women mediated neither their higher sexual activity nor their higher number of sexual partners. These results indirectly indicate that the apparently more liberated sexual behavior in redheaded women could be the consequence of potential mates' frequent attempts to have sex with them. Our results contradicted the three other tested models, specifically the models based on the assumption of different physiology, faster life history strategy, and altered self-perception of redheaded women induced by stereotypes about them. Naturally, the present study cannot say anything about the validity of other potential models that were not subjects of testing.

Le Petit Machiavellian Prince: Effects of Latent Toxoplasmosis on Political Beliefs and Values.

Humans infected by Toxoplasma gondii express no specific symptoms but manifest higher incidence of many diseases, disorders and differences in personality and behavior. The aim of this study was to compare the political beliefs and values of Toxoplasma-infected and Toxoplasma-free participants. We measured beliefs and values of 2315 responders via an online survey (477 Toxoplasma-infected) using the Political Beliefs and Values Inventory (PI34). This study showed Toxoplasma-infected and Toxoplasma-free participants of our cross-sectional study differed in three of four factors of PI34, scoring higher in Tribalism and lower in Cultural liberalism and Anti-Authoritarianism. We found sex differences in political beliefs associated with Toxoplasma infection. Infected women scored higher in tribalism and lower in cultural liberalism, compared with the Toxoplasma-free control group, while infected men scored higher in economic equity. These results fit with sexual differences in behavior and attitude observed after toxoplasmosis infection. Controlling for the effect of worse physical health and mental health had little impact, suggesting that impaired health did not cause these changes. Rather than adaptation to prevalence of parasites, as suggested by parasite-stress theory, the differences might be side-effects of long-term mild inflammatory reaction. However, to get clear picture of the mild inflammation effects, more research focused on different infectious diseases is needed.

Thus spoke peptides: SARS-CoV-2 spike gene evolved in humans and then shortly in rats while the rest of its genome in horseshoe bats and then in treeshrews.

SARS-CoV-2 is suspected to be the product of a natural or artificial recombination of two viruses - one adapted to the horseshoe bat and the other, donor of the spike protein gene, adapted to an unknown species. Here we used a new method to search for the original host of the ancestor of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and for the donor of its gene for the spike protein, the molecule responsible for binding to and entering human cells. We computed immunological T-distances (the number of different peptides that are present in the viral proteins but absent in proteins of the host) between 11 species of coronaviruses and 38 representatives of the main mammal clades. Analyses of pentapeptides, the presumed principal targets of T-cell non-self recognition, showed the smallest T-distance of the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 to humans, while the rest of SARS-CoV-2 proteome to the horseshoe bat. This suggests that the ancestor of SARS-CoV-2 was adapted to bats, but the spike gene donor was adapted to humans. Further analyses suggest that the ancestral coronavirus adapted to bats was shortly passaged in treeshrews, while the donor of the spike gene was shortly passaged in rats before the recombination event.

Measuring fear evoked by the scariest animal: Czech versions of the Spider Questionnaire and Spider Phobia Beliefs Questionnaire.

BACKGROUND: Although tiny in size and mostly harmless, spiders evoke exceptional fear in a significant part of the population and arachnophobia is one of the most common anxiety disorders with prevalence 2.7-6.1%. Two standard measures have been widely used to reliably assess the emotional and cognitive component of spider fear, the Spider Questionnaire (SPQ) and Spider Phobia Beliefs Questionnaire (SBQ). We aimed to develop and validate their Czech translations, describe distribution of spider fear in the Czech population, and analyse its association with disgust propensity and other sociodemographic characteristics. METHODS: In Phase 1, we developed Czech translations of both questionnaires using a back-translation procedure and then tested their psychometric properties against their English versions in a counterbalanced experimental design using the Mann-Whitney U test and two-sided t-test. In Phase 2, we analysed scores on the Czech SPQ and SBQ on a larger sample. We evaluated the effects of age, gender, level of education, biology background, and association with the assessments of snake fear (i.e. the Snake Questionnaire, SNAQ) and disgust propensity (i.e. the Disgust Scale-Revised, DS-R) using a Spearman correlation, redundancy analysis, and general linear models. RESULTS: We have demonstrated that the Czech SPQ and SBQ are equivalent to their originals and show excellent test-retest reliability (SPQ: 0.93; SBQ: 0.87-0.90). In total, 398 (10.3%) out of 3863 subjects reached the cut-off point for potential spider phobia. In addition, SPQ and SBQ scores were highly correlated (0.73-0.79), significantly more than with the SNAQ (0.21-0.32) or the DS-R (0.36-0.40). Two multivariate statistical methods revealed a significant association between the gender, age, level of education, biology background, or disgust propensity and the SPQ scores. CONCLUSION: The Czech SPQ and SBQ may produce reliable and valid assessments of spider fear, but they must be further psychometrically tested considering the limitation of this study before wider use. We corroborate previous findings that fear of spiders is significantly associated with sociodemographic variables, such as gender, age, or education, as well as with the individual level of disgust propensity.

The importance of being heterozygote: effects of RHD-genotype-sex interaction on the physical and mental health of a non-clinical population.

Human populations, especially European, are polymorphic in the RHD gene. A significant fraction of their members carry no copy of the coding section of RHD gene, which results in their Rh-negative blood type. Theoretically, this polymorphism should be unstable. Carriers of the less frequent allele are penalized by reduced fertility because of the immunization of RhD-negative mothers by their RhD-positive babies, which results in hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn in their subsequent progeny. For about 90 years, some form of balancing selection has been suspected to sustain this polymorphism. Several recent studies showed that the RhD-positive heterozygotes express higher viability than both types of homozygotes. However, the genotype of subjects in these studies was estimated only by indirect methods. Here we compared the physical and mental health of 178 women and 86 men who were directly tested for their RHD genotype. The results showed that RhD-positive homozygotic women had worse and RhD-positive homozygotic men better physical health than RhD-negative homozygotes; the difference between RhD-negative homozygotes and heterozygotes was not significant. Our results confirmed that health of RhD-positive heterozygotes and homozygotes differ. Therefore, any result of the comparison of subjects with RhD-positive and RhD-negative phenotype depends on the heterozygote-to-homozygote ratio in the RhD-positive sample. It is, therefore, crucial to analyze the effects of RHD-genotypes, not phenotypes in future studies.

Toxoplasmosis is a risk factor for acquiring SARS-CoV-2 infection and a severe course of COVID-19 in the Czech and Slovak population: a preregistered exploratory internet cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Latent toxoplasmosis, i.e. a lifelong infection with the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii, affects about a third of the human population worldwide. In the past 10 years, numerous studies have shown that infected individuals have a significantly higher incidence of mental and physical health problems and are more prone to exhibiting the adverse effects of various diseases. METHODS: A cross-sectional internet study was performed on a population of 4499 (786 Toxoplasma-infected) participants and looked for factors which positively or negatively affect the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and likelihood of a severe course of COVID-19. RESULTS: Logistic regression and partial Kendall correlation controlling for sex, age, and size of the place of residence showed that latent toxoplasmosis had the strongest effect on the risk of infection (OR = 1.50) before sport (OR = 1.30) and borreliosis (1.27). It also had the strongest effect on the risk of severe course of infection (Tau = 0.146), before autoimmunity, immunodeficiency, male sex, keeping a cat, being overweight, borreliosis, higher age, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Toxoplasmosis augmented the adverse effects of other risk factors but was not the proximal cause of the effect of cat-keeping on higher likelihood of COVID infection and higher severity of the course of infection because the effect of cat-keeping was also observed (and in particular) in a subset of Toxoplasma-infected respondents (Tau = 0.153). Effects of keeping a cat were detected only in respondents from multi-member families, suggesting that a cat could be a vector for the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 within a family. CONCLUSIONS: Toxoplasmosis is currently not considered a risk factor for COVID-19, and Toxoplasma-infected individuals are neither informed about their higher risk nor prioritised in vaccination programs. Because toxoplasmosis affects a large segment of the human population, its impact on COVID-19-associated effects on public health could be considerable.

Looking Like a Million Dollars: Does Attractiveness Priming Increase Altruistic Behavior in Experimental Games?

The emergence of altruistic behavior constitutes one of the most widely studied problems in evolutionary biology and behavioral science. Multiple explanations have been proposed, most importantly including kin selection, reciprocity, and costly signaling in sexual selection. In order to test the latter, this study investigated whether people behave more altruistically when primed by photographs of attractive faces and whether more or less altruistic people differ in the number of sexual and romantic partners. Participants in the general population (N = 158, 84 F, 74 M) first rated the attractiveness of photographs of 20 faces of the opposite (sexually preferred) sex and then played the Dictator and Ultimatum Games (DG and UG). The photograph rating acted as priming; half the participants received photographs of people rated as more attractive than average in an earlier study, and the other half received photographs previously rated as less attractive. The attractiveness-primed participants, especially men, were expected to behave more altruistically-signaling that they are desirable, resource-possessing partners. We also expected altruists to self-report more sexual and romantic partners. The observed difference between altruistic behaviors in the attractiveness- and unattractiveness-primed groups occurred in UG offers, however, in the opposite than expected direction in women. The number of sexual partners was positively correlated to minimum acceptable offers (MAOs) in the UG, in line with expectations based on the theory of costly signaling.

Relationship between Latent Toxoplasmosis and Depression in Clients of a Center for Assisted Reproduction.

Latent infection of the globally spread parasite Toxoplasma gondii in humans has been associated with changes in personality and behavior. Numerous studies have investigated the effect of toxoplasmosis on depression, but their results are inconsistent. Our study focused on the effect of latent toxoplasmosis on depression in men and women in association with their fertility. In 2016-2018, we recruited clients (677 men and 664 women) of the Center for Assisted Reproduction and asked them to complete a standardized Beck Depression Inventory-II. In women without fertility problems, we found higher depression scores in Toxoplasma-positive than in Toxoplasma-negative (p = 0.010, Cohen's d = 0.48). Toxoplasma-positive infertile men, on the other hand, had lower depression scores than Toxoplasma-negative infertile men (p ≤ 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.48). Our results are consistent with the previously described effects of latent toxoplasmosis, which seem to go in opposite directions regarding the effect on personality and behavior of men and women. Our results could be explained by gender-contrasting reactions to chronic stress associated with lifelong infection. This suggests that due to gender differences in the impact of latent toxoplasmosis, future studies ought to perform separate analyses for women and men.

Faster life history strategy manifests itself by lower age at menarche, higher sexual desire, and earlier reproduction in people with worse health.

Factors which indicate lower life expectancy also induce switching to a faster life strategy, that is, a higher investment in current reproduction at the expense of future reproduction and body maintenance. We tested a hypothesis according to which impairment of individual health serves as a signal for switching to a faster life strategy using online-gathered data from 32,911 subjects. Worse health was associated with lower age at menarche and earlier initiation of sexual life in women and higher sexual desire and earlier reproduction in both sexes. Individuals with worse health also exhibited lower sexual activity, lower number of sexual partners, and lower total number of children. These results suggest that impaired health shifts individuals towards a faster life strategy but also has a negative (physiological) effect on behaviours related to sexual life. Signs of a faster life strategy were also found in Rh-negative men in good health, indicating that even just genetic predisposition to worse health could serve as a signal for switching to a faster life strategy. We suggest that improved public health in developed countries and the resulting shift to a slower life strategy could be the ultimate cause of the phenomenon of demographic transition.