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Sterols, toxins and parasitism
1Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, School of Pharmacy-Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
Medical Hypotheses
|November 1, 1991
Abstract:
It has been suggested that pathogenic protozoa like Trypanosoma evolved from toxic algae and retained their ancestral algal toxins throughout evolution. These toxins may have enabled them to overcome their host's defense mechanisms and were therefore preserved by the parasites. Implications of this hypothesis are presented.