Identification of a Trypanosoma cruzi antigen that is shed during the acute phase of Chagas' disease

Proteomic analysis reveals different composition of extracellular vesicles released by two Trypanosoma cruzi strains associated with their distinct interaction with host cells

“…The TS enzymes are known to be released by trypomastigotes and influence the host infectivity [12,44,45] and to stimulate the production of IL-6 in intestinal microvascular endothelial cells and peripheral blood mononuclear cells [46]. It is important that some of these proteins were also released in the soluble form as shown before [47].…”

“…Those strains displayed significant biological differences regarding infectivity [19], drug resistance [11], and immunomodulation [12]. Purified EVs and soluble fractions from Y and YuYu strains were characterized by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based proteomic analysis.…”

Diagnosis of Chagas disease: what has been achieved? What remains to be done with regard to diagnosis and follow up studies?

“…Several research groups have therefore used recombinant/synthetic and biochemically purified antigens (Affranchino et al 1989, Goldenberg et al 1991, Krieger et al 1992, Umezawa et al 1999, Franco da Silveira et al 2001. In order to be useful, these antigens must meet several criteria: (i) they should be present in T. cruzi isolates from different endemic areas, and absent from other infectious disease agents; (ii) they should be highly immunogenic in populations with different genetic backgrounds, irrespective of the clinical phase of Chagas disease and (iii) they should be stable and easily amenable to qualitycontrol tests, to guarantee reproducibility (Zingales et al 1990, Stolf 1992).…”

Lipids shed into the culture medium by trypomastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi

“…This may be related to the shedding of various important proteins of the trypomastigote stage such as SAPA (Affranchino et al 1989, Pollevick et al 1991, Agusti et al 1997 or Tc-85 (Couto et al 1993, Abuin et al 1996 both being anchored by a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) to the surface membrane. It has been speculated that GPI-anchored proteins partition preferentially in plasma membrane domains enriched in certain membrane constituents.…”