Chagas disease remains a neglected disease that is considered to be a public health problem. The early diagnosis of cases is important to improve the prognosis of infected patients and prevent transmission. Serological tests are the method of choice for diagnosis. However, two serological tests are currently recommended to confirm positive cases. In this sense, more sensitive and specific serological tests need to be developed to overcome these current diagnosis problems. This study aimed to develop a new recombinant multiepitope protein for the diagnosis of Chagas disease, hereafter named rTC. The rTC was constructed based on amino acid sequences from different combinations of Trypanosoma cruzi antigens in the same polypeptide and tested using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect different types of Chagas disease. rTC was able to discriminate between indeterminate (IND) and cardiac (CARD) cases and cross-reactive diseases, as well as healthy samples, with 98.28% sensitivity and 96.67% specificity, respectively. These data suggest that rTC has the potential to be tested in future studies against a larger serological panel for the diagnosis of Chagas disease.

A COVID-19 é uma infecção altamente contagiosa e rapidamente se tornou uma pandemia. Um dos desafios enfrentados é o diagnóstico, visto que os métodos utilizados possuem limitações, como a dependência de insumos importados. O objetivo desse estudo foi divulgar ações e estratégias de universidades e institutos de pesquisa para o diagnóstico da COVID-19 no Brasil. Deste modo, foi realizada uma busca de patentes no INPI e de notícias em sites oficiais no período de 25 de fevereiro a 10 de maio de 2020. Além disso, uma análise comparativa das iniciativas foi realizada. Neste estudo não foram encontradas patentes relacionadas ao tema, porém 88 iniciativas abordando diagnósticos molecular e imunológico, além de métodos alternativos foram selecionadas. Por meio da análise das iniciativas, foi possível demonstrar a relevância e aplicabilidade destas ações dentro do contexto da pandemia, visto que o diagnóstico se tornou uma estratégia fundamental para o controle da COVID-19.

Background: Chagas disease is still a neglected disease considered a public health problem. Early diagnosis of cases is important to improve the prognosis of infected patients and prevent transmission. Serological tests are the method of choice for diagnosis. However, two serological tests are currently recommended to confirm positive cases. In this sense, more sensitive and specific serological tests need to be developed to overcome the problems currently faced. This study aimed to develop a new recombinant multiepitope protein for the diagnosis of Chagas disease, hereafter named rTC. Methods: The rTC was constructed based on amino acid sequences from different combinations of Trypanossoma cruzi antigens in the same polypeptide and tested in ELISA for detecting different Chagas disease. Results: rTC1 was able to discriminate between indeterminate (IND) and cardiac (CARD) cases and cross-reactive diseases, and healthy samples, with 96.6% sensitivity and 97.96% specificity, respectively. Conclusion: These data suggest a preliminary study that rTC1 has the po-tential to be tested in future studies against a larger serological panel for the diagnosis of Chagas disease.