A virus common in algae, known as ATCV-1, has been revealed to also infect humans. This virus, it turns out, has the ability to slow mammal brain function and limit attention span. A study at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine did a study and found the virus in nearly half of them. That infected half also performed 10% worse on cognitive tests.
Researchers injected mice with the virus, and the newly infected mice took up to 10% longer to finish mazes and spent about 20% less time exploring new surroundings than their uninfected counterparts.
The researchers examined the each infected mouse's hippocampus and found that the virus had affected about 1300 genes in the mice, some of which are crucial to brain function, immune responses, and reactions to dopamine.
Whether or not the general public needs to worry about this virus is still unknown, but these findings open up several figurative rabbit-holes as to the safety of horticulturists. As of now, the consensus is that little to no diseases may be transmitted from plants to humans, but this may change very, very soon.
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/10/algal-virus-found-humans-slows-brain-activity
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