, Chagas disease and cancer: putting together the pieces of a complex puzzle.

Considering the extensive and widespread impact on individuals, cancer can presently be categorized as a pandemic. In many instances, the development of tumors has been linked to endemic microbe infections. Among parasitic infections, stands out as one of the most extensively discussed protozoans in the literature that explores the association between diseases of parasite origin and cancer.

Sec22b-dependent antigen cross-presentation is a significant contributor of T cell priming during infection with the parasite .

Antigen cross-presentation is a vital mechanism of dendritic cells and other antigen presenting cells to orchestrate the priming of cytotoxic responses towards killing of infected or cancer cells. In this process, exogenous antigens are internalized by dendritic cells, processed, loaded onto MHC class I molecules and presented to CD8 T cells to activate them. Sec22b is an ER-Golgi Intermediate Compartment resident SNARE protein that, in partnership with sintaxin4, coordinates the recruitment of the transporter associated with antigen processing protein and the peptide loading complex to phagosomes, where antigenic peptides that have been proteolyzed in the cytosol are loaded in MHC class I molecules and transported to the cell membrane.

Immunization With Lipopolysaccharide-Activated Dendritic Cells Generates a Specific CD8 T Cell Response That Confers Partial Protection Against Infection With .

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induces the activation of dendritic cells (DCs) throughout the engagement of toll-like receptor 4. LPS-activated DCs show increased capacity to process and present pathogen-derived antigens to activate naïve T cells. DCs-based vaccines have been successfully used to treat some cancer types, and lately transferred to the field of infectious diseases, in particular against HIV.