Antigenic Make-Up of Trypanosoma cruzi Culture Forms: Identification of a Specific Component

Abstract

A comparison of Trypanosoma cruzi water soluble antigens with those of stercorarian and salivarian trypanosomes, and Leishmania using immunoprecipitation in gels and immunoelectrophoresis, with the aid of hyperimmune rabbit serum and heterologous adsorptions showed the following. 1) There is a high complexity of soluble antigens of T. cruzi and T. rangeli. 2) At the intraspecific level our results demonstrated the antigenic stability of T. cruzi when maintained in vitro, and that there was quantitative antigenic consistency of the culture forms of different strains of T. cruzi from diverse geographic and parasite sources. At the interspecific level, the antigenic relationships between T. cruzi and the other Trypanosomatidae were established, as follows: 6/10ths of the antigens are shared by stercorarian species (T. dionisii, T. rangeli); 4/10ths by a salivarian trypanosome (T. brucei); and 3/10ths by Leishmania (L. donovani, L. mexicana). 3) Among the 4/10ths of antigenic components specific to T. cruzi, one component was characterized by its antigenicity and immunogenicity in natural and experimental infections, and in immunization experiments; this component was specific to T. cruzi when compared to the other Trypanosomatidae antigens.

Trypanosoma (Herpetosoma) rangeli Tejera, 1920: an updated review

“…This crossed reaction has been shown by immunoelectrophoresis, ELISA, indirect immunofluorescence, immunoblotting, double immunodiffusion (Afchain et al 1979, Antony et al 1979, Guhl & Marinkelle 1982, Grogl & Kuhn 1984, Basso et al 1989, O' Daly et al 1994, Saldaña & Sousa 1996. These studies have generally shown that the 2 parasite species share at least 60% of their antigens.…”

Characterization of Trypanosoma rangeli Strains Isolated in Central and South America: an Overview

“…More studies must be performed to better understand the T. rangeli antigenic variation among strains isolated from different geographical regions, since T. rangeli and T. cruzi share 60% of their soluble antigenic coat (Afchain et al 1979).…”

Serological Diagnosis of Trypanosoma rangeli Infected Patients. A Comparison of Different Methods and its Implications for the Diagnosis of Chagas' Disease

“…Both parasites have similar geographical distributions and share the same host range and often have identical insect vectors. Although considered non-pathogenic to man [1], T. rangeli is of medical interest as a possible source of confusion in the serological diagnosis of Chagas' disease due to its well-known immunological cross-reactivity with T. cruzi [2][3][4][5]. In experimental infection of mice, several exposures to T. rangeli cause an increase in antibody titres to T. cruzi and it is possible that these antibodies modulate the outcome of active T. cruzi infection [6][7][8][9].…”