Early assessment of antibodies decline in Chagas patients following treatment using a serological multiplex immunoassay.

Chagas disease following infection with Trypanosoma cruzi is a major public health issue, with the disease spreading beyond endemic regions and becoming more global due to the migration of infected individuals. The currently available anti-parasitic drugs, nifurtimox and benznidazole, remain insufficiently evaluated for their efficacy in adult patients. A key challenge is the lack of markers for parasitological cure, which also precludes the development of new treatments.

Adverse events associated with benznidazole treatment for Chagas disease in children and adults.

Aims: Chagas disease (ChD) affects approximately 7 million people in Latin America, with benznidazole being the most commonly used treatment.

Methods: Data from a retrospective cohort study in Argentina, covering January 1980 to July 2019, was reanalysed to identify and characterize benznidazole-related adverse drug reactions (ADRs).

Results: The study included 518 patients: 449 children and 69 adults (median age in children: 4 years; adults: 25 years; age ranges: 1 month-17.

Efficacy of short-course treatment for prevention of congenital transmission of Chagas disease: A retrospective cohort study.

Background: In regions with controlled vector transmission of T. cruzi, congenital transmission is the most frequent route of infection. Treatment with benznidazole (BZ) or nifurtimox (NF) for 60 days in girls and women of childbearing age showed to be effective in preventing mother to child transmission of this disease.

An α-Gal antigenic surrogate as a biomarker of treatment evaluation in Trypanosoma cruzi-infected children. A retrospective cohort study.

Background: Proper evaluation of therapeutic responses in Chagas disease is hampered by the prolonged persistence of antibodies to Trypanosoma cruzi measured by conventional serological tests and by the lack of sensitivity of parasitological tests. Previous studies indicated that tGPI-mucins, an α-Gal (α-d-Galp(1→3)-β-d-Galp(1→4)-d-GlcNAc)-rich fraction obtained from T. cruzi trypomastigotes surface coat, elicit a strong and protective antibody response in infected individuals, which disappears soon after successful treatment.

Deep serological profiling of the Trypanosoma cruzi TSSA antigen reveals different epitopes and modes of recognition by Chagas disease patients.

Background: Trypanosoma cruzi, the agent of Chagas disease, displays a highly structured population, with multiple strains that can be grouped into 6-7 evolutionary lineages showing variable eco-epidemiological traits and likely also distinct disease-associated features. Previous works have shown that antibody responses to 'isoforms' of the polymorphic parasite antigen TSSA enable robust and sensitive identification of the infecting strain with near lineage-level resolution. To optimize the serotyping performance of this molecule, we herein used a combination of immunosignaturing approaches based on peptide microarrays and serum samples from Chagas disease patients to establish a deep linear B-cell epitope profiling of TSSA.