scholarly journals Persistent infections in chronic Chagas' disease patients treated with anti-Trypanosoma cruzi nitroderivatives

2000 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 157-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Socorro BRAGA ◽  
Liana LAURIA-PIRES ◽  
Enrique R. ARGAÑARAZ ◽  
Rubens J. NASCIMENTO ◽  
Antonio R. L. TEIXEIRA

We used a molecular method and demonstrated that treatment of the chronic human Trypanosoma cruzi infections with nitroderivatives did not lead to parasitological cure. Seventeen treated and 17 untreated chronic Chagas' disease patients, with at least two out of three positive serologic assays for the infection, and 17 control subjects formed the study groups. PCR assays with nested sets of T. cruzi DNA primers monitored the efficacy of treatment. The amplification products were hybridized to their complementary internal sequences. Untreated and treated Chagas' disease patients yielded PCR amplification products with T. cruzi nuclear DNA primers. Competitive PCR was conducted to determine the quantity of parasites in the blood and revealed < 1 to 75 T. cruzi/ml in untreated (means 25.83 ± 26.32) and < 1 to 36 T. cruzi/ml in treated (means 6.45 ± 9.28) Chagas' disease patients. The difference between the means was not statistically significant. These findings reveal a need for precise definition of the role of treatment of chronic Chagas' disease patients with nitrofuran and nitroimidazole compounds.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio R. L. Teixeira ◽  
Alessandro O Sousa ◽  
Clever C Gomes ◽  
Adriana A Sá ◽  
Rubens J Nascimento ◽  
...  

Background: The Trypanosoma cruzi infection renders the transfer of the mitochondrion kinetoplast DNA minicircle sequences into the host’s genome. The Aves are refractory to the infection, but chicks hatched from the T. cruzi inoculated eggs integrate the DNA minicircle sequences into the germ line cells. Rabbits, mice and chickens with the minicircle sequences mutations develop the Chagas cardiomyopathy and the DNA transfer underpins the heart disease. Methodology: The PCR with the specific primer sets revealed the Protist nuclear DNA and the kinetoplast DNA in the agarose gels bands probed with the radiolabel specific sequences from tissues of the T. cruzi-infected rabbits and of the mice. A targetprimer TAIL-PCR amplification employing primer sets from the chickens, rabbits and mice, in combination with primer sets from the the T. cruzi kinetoplast minicircle sequences was used. This approach led us to disclose the integration sites of the kinetoplast DNA biomarker, then, used to monitor the effect of multidrug treatment of the T. cruzi infected mice. Principal findings: The Southern hybridization, clone and sequence of the amplification products revealed the DNA minicircle sequences integrations sites in the LINE transposable elements. An array of inhibitors of eukaryote cells division was used to arrest the DNA transfer. It was shown that nine out of 12 inhibitors prevented the kinetoplast DNA integration into the macrophage genome. The multidrug treatment of the acutely T. cruzi-infected mice with Benznidazole, Azidothymidine and Ofloxacin lessened circa 2.5-fold the rate of the minicircle sequences integrations in the mouse genome and inhibited the rejection of the target heart cells. Conclusion and significance: The T. cruzi mitochondrion kinetoplast minicircle sequences transfer driven pathogenesis of Chagas disease is an ancient Cross-Kingdom DNA phenomenon of evolution and, therefore, paradigm research with effective purposing inhibitors is needed.


2014 ◽  
pp. 61-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luisa Fernanda Duarte ◽  
Oscar Roberto Flórez ◽  
Giovanna Rincón ◽  
Clara Isabel González

Objective: To compare the diagnostic performance of seven methods to determine Trypanosoma cruzi infection in patients with chronic Chagas disease. Methods: Analytical study, using the case-control design, which included 205 people (patients with Chagasic cardiomyopathy, n= 100; control group, n= 105). Three enzyme linked immunosorbent assays, one indirect hemagglutination assay and one immunochromatographic test were assessed. Additionally, DNA amplification was performed via the PCR method using kinetoplast and nuclear DNA as target sequences. For the comparative analysis of diagnostic tests, the parameters used were sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC), positive and negative likelihood ratio, as well as κ quality analysis. Results: The commercial Bioelisa Chagas test showed the highest sensitivity (98%), specificity (100%), and positive and negative predictive values; additionally it had the highest discriminatory power. Otherwise, the amplification of T. cruzi DNA in blood samples showed low values of sensitivity (kinetoplast DNA= 51%, nuclear DNA= 22%), but high values of specificity (100%), and moderate to low discriminatory ability. Conclusion: The comparative analysis among the different methods suggests that the diagnostic strategy of T. cruzi infection in patients with chronic Chagas disease can be performed using ELISA assays based on recombinant proteins and/or synthetic peptides, which show higher diagnosis performance and can confirm and exclude the diagnosis of T. cruzi infection. The molecular methods show poor performance when used in the diagnosis of patients with chronic Chagas disease.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. e0005796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingebourg Georg ◽  
Alejandro Marcel Hasslocher-Moreno ◽  
Sergio Salles Xavier ◽  
Marcelo Teixeira de Holanda ◽  
Eric Henrique Roma ◽  
...  

Parasitology ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. B. A. MENDONÇA ◽  
N. S. NEHME ◽  
S. S. SANTOS ◽  
E. CUPOLILLO ◽  
N. VARGAS ◽  
...  

Trypanosoma cruzi is currently classified into 2 major phylogenetic lineages, T. cruzi I and II, that correlate with the formerly described zymodeme 1 and 2, respectively. Another isoenzymic group (zymodeme 3–Z3) was also described. In this study, we analysed the genetic diversity among Z3 isolates of the Brazilian Amazon by restriction fragment length polymorphism of the intergenic transcribed spacers (ITSs) of the ribosomal RNA cistron and the size of the divergent domain D7 of the 24Sα rRNA gene. DNAs from 12 T. cruzi Z3 isolates obtained from humans (2), Panstrongylus geniculatus (1), and Rhodnius brethesi (9) were submitted to PCR amplification of the ITSs plus the 5·8S rDNA. The PCR products were digested with 4 distinct endonucleases and the profiles analysed by a numerical methodology. The phenetic dendrogram revealed a clear dichotomy in the Z3 group, defining 2 groups that were named Z3-A and Z3-B. Dimorphism was also found in the band sizes of the amplified D7 divergent domain of the 24Sα rDNA, which showed a perfect correlation with the ITSs clustering. The organization of the ribosomal cistron was investigated by Southern blotting and shown to be conserved in the genome of the 2 Z3 groups. This study shows that the rDNA cistron allows the definition of 2 distinct subclusters in Z3 isolates.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. e0007168 ◽  
Author(s):  
María A. Natale ◽  
Gonzalo Cesar ◽  
Maria G. Alvarez ◽  
Melisa D. Castro Eiro ◽  
Bruno Lococo ◽  
...  

2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 684-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
César Gómez-Hernández ◽  
Karine Rezende-Oliveira ◽  
Gabriel Antônio Nogueira Nascentes ◽  
Lara Rocha Batista ◽  
Henrique Borges Kappel ◽  
...  

INTRODUCTION: For a long time, the importance of Chagas disease in Mexico, where many regarded it as an exotic malady, was questioned. Considering the great genetic diversity among isolates of Trypanosoma cruzi, the importance of this biological characterization, and the paucity of information on the clinical and biological aspects of Chagas disease in Mexico, this study aimed to identify the molecular and biological characterization of Trypanosoma cruzi isolates from different endemic areas of this country, especially of the State of Jalisco. METHODS: Eight Mexican Trypanosoma cruzi strains were biologically and genetically characterized (PCR specific for Trypanosoma cruzi, multiplex-PCR, amplification of space no transcript of the genes of the mini-exon, amplification of polymorphic regions of the mini-exon, classification by amplification of intergenic regions of the spliced leader genes, RAPD - (random amplified polymorphic DNA). RESULTS: Two profiles of parasitaemia were observed, patent (peak parasitaemia of 4.6×10(6) to 10(7) parasites/mL) and subpatent. In addition, all isolates were able to infect 100% of the animals. The isolates mainly displayed tropism for striated (cardiac and skeletal) muscle. PCR amplification of the mini-exon gene classified the eight strains as TcI. The RAPD technique revealed intraspecies variation among isolates, distinguishing strains isolated from humans and triatomines and according to geographic origin. CONCLUSIONS: The Mexican T. cruzi strains are myotrophic and belong to group TcI.


1998 ◽  
Vol 12 (14) ◽  
pp. 1551-1558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masako Oya Masuda ◽  
Mariano Levin ◽  
Selma Farias De Oliveira ◽  
Patricia C. Dos Santos Costa ◽  
Pablo Lopez Bergami ◽  
...  

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