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

Abstract

Vásquez JE, Krusnell J, Ö rn A, Sousa OE, Harris RA. Serological Diagnosis of Trypanosoma rangeli Infected Patients. A Comparison of Different Methods and its Implications for the Diagnosis of Chagas' Disease. Scand J Immunol 1997;45:322-330 Venous blood from 65 Panamanian schoolchildren living in an area endemic for both Trypanosoma cruzi and T. rangeli were screened for the presence of these parasites. Trypanosoma rangeli were isolated and cultured from four individuals. Serological tests of all 65 sera were performed, including immunohaemagglutination (IHA), indirect immunofluorescence assay (IF) and ELISA using both T. rangeli and T. cruzi as antigens, as well as T. cruzi synthetic peptides in an ELISA assay. Results indicated a higher immunoreactivity to T. rangeli preparations than to T. cruzi within the studied population, which could be divided into four 'serological responder' groups. Interestingly, the panel of SAPA and other T. cruzi synthetic peptides were not useful in the discrimination of patients. Furthermore, patients from whom parasites had been isolated could not be distinguished from those of two other groups. Significant immunoreactivity to T. cruzi preparations was displayed in all responder sera, despite total lack of evidence of infection with this parasite. The immunobiological significance of T. rangeli infection is unclear, but these data indicate that it is a compounding problem in the accurate diagnosis of pathological T. cruzi infection by serological analysis. The relationship of these cohabiting species, in respect to infection outcome and immunological activation, is discussed.

Predominance of Trypanosoma rangeli infection in children from a Chagas disease endemic area in the west-shore of the Panama canal

“…Interestingly, none of the sera from T. rangeli infected children showed a positive reaction with the T. cruzi IFAT, ELISA or with the Western blot tests used. In agreement with our results, other studies have reported no recognition of T. cruzi antigens by T. rangeli infected human sera (Guhl et al 1987, Hudson et al 1988, Vasquez et al 1997). It appears, therefore, that most of the T. rangeli human infections do not raise enough cross-reacting an- a: reactivity in at least two of the three serological tests used.…”

“…Blood samples were obtained by venipuncture from each child, informed written consent was obtained from all parents or legal guardians. Hemoculture of samples was performed as described by Vasquez et al (1997). To corroborate and identify the species of trypanosomes isolated, a duplex PCR assay (Chiurillo et al 2003) followed by dot blot hybridization with radiolabeled oligonucleotide probes specific for T. cruzi and T. rangeli was performed on initially microscopically positive hemocultures.…”

Prevalencia de autoanticuerpos contra receptores autonómicos en pacientes panameños con cardiopatía chagásica crónica y con otras formas de cardiopatía

“…Para detectar la infección con T. cruzi, a todos los sujetos se les extrajeron 15 ml de sangre y se evaluaron con tres pruebas serológicas de diferente metodología: ELISA (Chagatest, Wiener Lab., Argentina), ImmunoComb II (Orgenics, Israel) y Western Blot con antígeno total de epimastigotes (10,11). Se consideraron chagásicos los sujetos que resultaron positivos en las tres pruebas.…”

A mucin like gene different from the previously reported members of the mucin like gene families is transcribed in Trypanosoma cruzi but not in Trypanosoma rangeli

“…Serological cross-reactivities can also confuse epidemiological studies of these infections (D'Alessandro & Saravia 1999, Grisard et al 1999, Guhl & Vallejo 2003. It is still necessary to identify the distinctive characteristics that allow a differential diagnosis and/or epidemiological studies to avoid the unnecessary application of drug treatments that can cause severe side effects in patients with the misdiagnosed disease (Vasquez et al 1997).As there is evidence for the close evolutive relationship between T. cruzi and T. rangeli (Stevens et al 2001), we decided to use the subtraction approach for the isolation and characterization of genes expressed by T. cruzi and not by T. rangeli. We report here the obtention and molecular characterization of a T. cruzi specific cDNA clone that showed a high homology percent with a T. cruzi gene automatically annotated by the T. cruzi genome project as a putative mucin associated surface protein (MASP).…”

“…Serological cross-reactivities can also confuse epidemiological studies of these infections (D'Alessandro & Saravia 1999, Grisard et al 1999, Guhl & Vallejo 2003. It is still necessary to identify the distinctive characteristics that allow a differential diagnosis and/or epidemiological studies to avoid the unnecessary application of drug treatments that can cause severe side effects in patients with the misdiagnosed disease (Vasquez et al 1997).…”