Immunogenomic screening approach to identify new antigens for the serological diagnosis of chronic Chagas' disease.

Serological tests are preferentially used for the diagnosis of Chagas' disease (CD) during the chronic phase because of the low parasitemia and high anti-Trypanosoma cruzi antibody titers. However, the current methods showed several disadvantages, as contradictory or inconclusive results, mainly related to the characteristics of the antigens used, in general, crude or whole parasites, but also due to antigen production protocol and the experimental conditions used in serological tests. Thus, better-quality serological assays are urgently needed.

Current situation and perspectives regarding human Chagas disease in midwestern of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Recognising the importance of Chagas disease in Brazil, Bambuí set up epidemiological surveillance for Chagas disease in 1974 and was the first municipality to do so. To ascertain the current epidemiology of Chagas disease in this municipality, 1.782 blood samples from the general population were analysed; 7.

Applicability of an optimized non-conventional flow cytometry method to detect anti-Trypanosoma cruzi immunoglobulin G for the serological diagnosis and cure assessment following chemotherapeutic treatment of Chagas disease.

One of the challenges on immunodiagnostic of Chagas disease in endemic areas has been the search for more practical and safe antigenic preparation that provides tests with higher sensitivity and specificity, with low cross-reactivity. A new approach using fixed Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigotes to detect IgG reactivity was investigated previously. In order to continue this investigation, this study aimed at optimizing the flow cytometry-based method to the diagnosis of Chagas disease patients after specific chemotherapy.