Protein could be test and therapy for Chagas disease

Assassin bugs are the vector of the Chagas parasite Copyright: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

By: Laura García

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Protein could be test and therapy for Chagas disease</h1>
<h4>By: Laura García</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><P>[BUENOS AIRES] Argentinean scientists have found a new way of diagnosing and treating chronic Chagas heart disease.</P><br />
<P>The research was published this month (June) in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Immunology.</P><br />
<P>Chagas disease is caused by the parasite <em>Trypanosoma cruzi, </em>which is  transmitted to humans by blood-sucking insects of the subfamily <em>Triatominae</em><em> </em>— sometimes called assassin bugs.</P><br />
<P>After initial infection, most people enter a chronic stage of the disease — lasting several months or years — where they experience no symptoms. During this time, the parasite invades the body’s organs, especially causing damage to the heart.</P><br />
<P>There are drugs to treat this early chronic stage, but the parasite also causes a process similar to autoimmunity — a condition where antibodies produced by the patient’s own immune system against the parasite begin to attack the body’s own tissues — against which the drugs are not effective. </P><br />
<P>Project leader Mariano Levin, from the Institute of Genetic Engineering and Molecular Biology Research in Argentina, explains that these antibodies attack the heart, altering cardiac rhythms and, in some cases, causing death.</P><br />
<P>Using fragments of a surface heart muscle protein — the target of the damaging antibodies — the team was able to design a diagnostic test to detect the presence of the antibodies. </P><br />
<P>The test involves taking blood from a patient and mixing it with heart muscle protein fragments and a fluorescent marker. If there are any antibodies present in the blood, they will bind to the fragment and marker and make it fluoresce. </P><br />
<P>The team also showed that the damaging antibodies can be mopped up using the same heart muscle protein fragments, representing a possible new treatment. </P><br />
<P>They hope in the future that these heart fragments could be used to filter the antibodies from the blood, using a method similar to haemodialysis — a method used to clean the blood of patients with kidney disease.</P><br />
<P>Although patients will be still infected with the Chagas parasite, the treatment would help improve their heart condition, say the researchers.</P><br />
<P>A similar method has already been tested on 200 patients with heart disease in Europe, says Levin, and the next step will be to finalise a treatment protocol to test it in patients with Chagas disease.</P><br />
<P>Chagas disease is mainly found in Latin America and, according to the World Health Organization, affects 16–18 million people, with 300,000 new cases each year.<BR><BR><a  href="http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2249.2007.03381.x" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer"><BR>Link to abstract in Clinical and Experimental Immunology</A><BR><BR>Reference: Clinical and Experimental Immunology 148, 440 (2007)<BR><BR></P></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/protein-could-be-test-and-therapy-for-chagas-disea/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/news/protein-could-be-test-and-therapy-for-chagas-disea/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

[BUENOS AIRES] Argentinean scientists have found a new way of diagnosing and treating chronic Chagas heart disease.

The research was published this month (June) in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Immunology.

Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which is transmitted to humans by blood-sucking insects of the subfamily Triatominae — sometimes called assassin bugs.

After initial infection, most people enter a chronic stage of the disease — lasting several months or years — where they experience no symptoms. During this time, the parasite invades the body’s organs, especially causing damage to the heart.

There are drugs to treat this early chronic stage, but the parasite also causes a process similar to autoimmunity — a condition where antibodies produced by the patient’s own immune system against the parasite begin to attack the body’s own tissues — against which the drugs are not effective.

Project leader Mariano Levin, from the Institute of Genetic Engineering and Molecular Biology Research in Argentina, explains that these antibodies attack the heart, altering cardiac rhythms and, in some cases, causing death.

Using fragments of a surface heart muscle protein — the target of the damaging antibodies — the team was able to design a diagnostic test to detect the presence of the antibodies.

The test involves taking blood from a patient and mixing it with heart muscle protein fragments and a fluorescent marker. If there are any antibodies present in the blood, they will bind to the fragment and marker and make it fluoresce.

The team also showed that the damaging antibodies can be mopped up using the same heart muscle protein fragments, representing a possible new treatment.

They hope in the future that these heart fragments could be used to filter the antibodies from the blood, using a method similar to haemodialysis — a method used to clean the blood of patients with kidney disease.

Although patients will be still infected with the Chagas parasite, the treatment would help improve their heart condition, say the researchers.

A similar method has already been tested on 200 patients with heart disease in Europe, says Levin, and the next step will be to finalise a treatment protocol to test it in patients with Chagas disease.

Chagas disease is mainly found in Latin America and, according to the World Health Organization, affects 16–18 million people, with 300,000 new cases each year.

Link to abstract in Clinical and Experimental Immunology

Reference: Clinical and Experimental Immunology 148, 440 (2007)