Does Toxoplasma gondii infection have a causal impact on human psychopathology? A Mendelian randomization analysis

Jinyong Pang, Matthew J Valente, Kami Kim and Xiaoming Liu

PLOS Pathogens, 2026, vol. 22, issue 8, 1-20

Abstract: Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is a prevalent zoonotic parasite that has been implicated in influencing human psychiatric disorders and risk-taking behaviors. Using genome-wide association study (GWAS) data, we selected 25 and 76 single-nucleotide polymorphisms as instrumental variables for anti-T. gondii IgG seropositivity and anti-T. gondii IgG levels, respectively, and conducted two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses across 18 GWAS datasets to investigate potential causal effects on addiction, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and risk-taking behavior in European populations. Contrary to previous epidemiological evidence, our MR analyses do not support a significant causal association between T. gondii infection and any of the studied psychiatric disorders or risk-taking behavior. Collectively, these results establish that any true causal effect of genetic liability to T. gondii infection is likely to be small (OR

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:ppat00:1014312

DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1014312

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