Giardia duodenalis is one of the most prevalent enteroparasites in children. This parasite produces several clinical manifestations. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of genotypes of G. duodenalis causing infection in a region of southeastern Mexico. G. duodenalis cysts were isolated (33/429) from stool samples of children and molecular genotyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis, targeting the triosephosphate isomerase ( tpi ) and glutamate dehydrogenase ( gdh ) genes. The tpi gene was amplified in all of the cyst samples, either for assemblage A (27 samples) or assemblage B (6 samples). RFLP analysis classified the 27 tpi -A amplicons in assemblage A, subgenotype I. Samples classified as assemblage B were further analysed using PCR-RFLP of the gdh gene and identified as assemblage B, subgenotype III. To our knowledge, this is the first report of assemblage B of G. duodenalis in human clinical samples from Mexico.

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Chagas disease is a chronic infection caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. The first-line drugs approved for treatment have several limitations and are associated with toxicity. The recombinant TSA-1-C4 and Tc24-C4 proteins have been profiled as promising candidates for the formulation of therapeutic vaccines, leading us to propose them in combination as a bivalent recombinant protein strategy. In this study, we evaluated the immunomodulatory effect of TSA-1-C4 plus Tc24-C4 recombinant protein combination by in-vitro assays. Macrophages from naïve BALB/c mice were isolated and stimulated with TSA-1-C4+Tc24-C4 proteins, supernatants were recovered to measure NO, H O , and, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-10 cytokines. Stimulated macrophages were co-cultured with CD8 T cells from naïve mice, and inflammatory cytokine-profile was measured from supernatants. Additionally, by experimental T. cruzi acute infection model, cytotoxicity was evaluated in mice after the treatment with TSA-1-C4+Tc24-C4 proteins in presence of a TLR-4 agonist adjuvant, E6020-SE. We observed that the bivalent recombinant protein strategy activates macrophages by NO and H O production, also induced a significant Th1 immune-response compared to either TSA-1-C4 or Tc24-C4 stimulated macrophages. Moreover, naïve CD8 T cells in presence of TSA-1-C4+Tc24-C4 stimulated-macrophages similarly boosted Th1 profile by significant production of IFN-γ and TNF-α cytokines. These results support the synergistic effect of the bivalent recombinant protein strategy, which leads activation of peritoneal macrophages and CD8 T cells eliciting the Th1 immune response. Although the administration of TSA-1-C4+Tc24-C4+E6020-SE showed cytotoxic activity in T. cruzi-infected mice, there was not a benefit compared to stimulate with TSA-1-C4 or Tc24-C4 antigens formulated with E6020-SE adjuvant.