Fungi studied in Copenhagen could unlock new treatments for mental illnesses

You may have heard of the unique fungi that gradually kill animals and take over their brains, effectively turning them into zombies. One such species can be found in homes, where it infects 60 to 80 percent of the flies indoors, transforming them into zombies that attract other flies, which then undergo the same process.

This knowledge may prove useful in developing new medications for mental illnesses in humans, as researcher Henrik De Fine Licht from the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the University of Copenhagen hopes a new study will reveal. He has studied this so-called fly fungus for several years.

To understand how infected zombie flies relate to psychopharmaceuticals, it’s essential to first explore the fungus and its clever survival strategies. The fungus can be identified by the striped light and dark abdomen of the infected fly. Initially, it infects female flies with lethal spores that gradually consume the fly from the inside. After about six days, the fungus invades the brain and starts controlling the fly’s behavior, compelling it to fly up high on a wall or plant, where it then kills its victim.

At this point, the fungus has taken over nearly the entire body of the fly. Soon after, it releases spores from the fly’s abdomen, attracting healthy flies that attempt to mate with the dead ones, allowing the spores to infect them, thus continuing the cycle.

Research into the lifecycle of the fungus is well-documented, but the mechanisms by which it controls a fly’s brain could be crucial for understanding human behavior. By mapping the fungus’s genome, researchers aim to learn how it manipulates fly behavior, potentially informing the development of new treatments for human mental health disorders.