Publications by authors named "Paula Gabriela Ragone"
Benznidazole and nifurtimox are the only drugs specifically approved for the treatment of Chagas disease. Both compounds are given orally in tablets, but occasionally are ineffective and cause adverse effects. Benznidazole, the first-line treatment in many countries, is a compound with low solubility in water that is administered at high doses for long periods of time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeople living in areas with active vector-borne transmission of Chagas disease have multiple contacts with its causative agent, Trypanosoma cruzi. Reinfections by T. cruzi are possible at least in animal models leading to lower or even hardly detectable parasitaemia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- The research focuses on optimizing a Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) method for identifying genetic variations in Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease, which is known for its significant genetic diversity.
- By analyzing thirteen concatenated gene fragments from reference strains, the study achieved a robust classification of T. cruzi into its known Discrete Typing Units (DTUs) and found that a combination of seven specific gene fragments offers the best discrimination of genetic variations.
- The proposed seven-fragment MLST scheme is suggested as a new gold standard for T. cruzi typing, providing a reliable comparison point for other typing methods, especially for simpler single locus techniques