{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,2]],"date-time":"2026-10-02T18:23:24Z","timestamp":1790965404585,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,31]],"date-time":"2022-03-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1648684800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["31730096"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["31730096"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["81971964"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["81971964"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii), as an opportunistic pathogen, has special pathogenic effects on pregnant animals and humans. Progesterone (P4) is a critical hormone that supports pregnancy, and its levels fluctuate naturally during early pregnancy. However, little is known about the association of host P4 levels with the infectivity and pathogenicity of T. gondii. Our study showed that P4 significantly inhibited the invasion and proliferation of tachyzoites, resulting in abnormal cytoskeletal daughter budding and subsequent autophagy in vitro. To investigate the underlying mechanism, we identified a Toxoplasma gondii progesterone membrane receptor protein (TgPGRMC) that was localized to the mitochondrion and closely related to the effect of P4 on tachyzoites. The knockout of the pgrmc gene conferred resistance to P4 inhibitory effects. Our results prove the direct relationship between P4 single factors and T. gondii in vitro and demonstrate that TgPGRMC is an important link between T. gondii and P4, providing a new direction for research on T. gondii infection during pregnancy.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms23073843","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,31]],"date-time":"2022-03-31T21:34:29Z","timestamp":1648762469000},"page":"3843","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Progesterone Can Directly Inhibit the Life Activities of Toxoplasma gondii In Vitro through the Progesterone Receptor Membrane Component (PGRMC)"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"23","author":[{"given":"Yihan","family":"Wu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"National Animal Protozoa Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"},{"name":"Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology of the Ministry of Agriculture, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2500-7957","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xiao","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Animal Protozoa Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"},{"name":"Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology of the Ministry of Agriculture, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"},{"name":"Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai\u2019an 271000, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yong","family":"Fu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Animal Protozoa Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"},{"name":"Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology of the Ministry of Agriculture, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jing","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Animal Protozoa Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"},{"name":"Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology of the Ministry of Agriculture, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yangfei","family":"Xue","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Animal Protozoa Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"},{"name":"Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology of the Ministry of Agriculture, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qun","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Animal Protozoa Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"},{"name":"Key Laboratory of Animal Epidemiology of the Ministry of Agriculture, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,31]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"944","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pt.2019.07.001","article-title":"Toxoplasma gondii","volume":"35","author":"Lourido","year":"2019","journal-title":"Trends Parasitol."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1965","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(04)16412-X","article-title":"Toxoplasmosis","volume":"363","author":"Montoya","year":"2004","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"554","DOI":"10.1086\/590149","article-title":"Management of Toxoplasma gondii infection during pregnancy","volume":"47","author":"Goldstein","year":"2008","journal-title":"Clin. 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