PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases (Jan 2013)

Trypanosoma cruzi I and IV stocks from Brazilian Amazon are divergent in terms of biological and medical properties in mice.

  • Wuelton Marcelo Monteiro,
  • Ana Paula Margioto Teston,
  • Ana Paula Gruendling,
  • Daniele dos Reis,
  • Mônica Lúcia Gomes,
  • Silvana Marques de Araújo,
  • Maria Terezinha Bahia,
  • Laylah Kelre Costa Magalhães,
  • Jorge Augusto de Oliveira Guerra,
  • Henrique Silveira,
  • Max Jean de Ornelas Toledo,
  • Maria das Graças Vale Barbosa

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0002069
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 2
p. e2069

Abstract

Read online

BackgroundIn the Brazilian Amazon, clinical and epidemiological frameworks of Chagas disease are very dissimilar in relation to the endemic classical areas of transmission, possibly due to genetic and biological characteristics of the circulating Trypanosoma cruzi stocks. Twenty six T. cruzi stocks from Western Amazon Region attributed to the TcI and TcIV DTUs were comparatively studied in Swiss mice to test the hypothesis that T. cruzi clonal structure has a major impact on its biological and medical properties.Methodology/principal findingsSeventeen parameters were assayed in mice infected with 14 T. cruzi strains belonging to DTU TcI and 11 strains typed as TcIV. In comparison with TcI, TcIV stocks promoted a significantly shorter pre-patent period (pConclusion/significanceT. cruzi stocks belonging to TcI and TcIV DTUs from Brazilian Amazon are divergent in terms of biological and medical properties in mice.