[Trypanosoma cruzi infection decreases malignant melanoma development and increases survival in C57BL/6 mice].

Some infectious pathogens have the capacity to affect cancer progression. In the present paper we studied the effect of infection or immunization with Trypanosoma cruzi (Tc) against malignant melanoma development. We worked on 258 C57BL/6 male mice divided in five melanoma groups: control melanoma, melanoma Tc acutely infected, melanoma Tc chronically infected, melanoma Tc immunized and infected melanoma; and three control groups: healthy, Tc acutely infected and Tc chronically infected.

Electrocardiography repolarization abnormalities are characteristic signs of acute chagasic cardiomyopathy.

Chagas disease is a tropical parasitic disease caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), whose reemergence as oral outbreaks is currently a public health problem in Venezuela. T.

[An entomological and seroepidemiological study of Chagas' disease in an area in central-western Venezuela infested with Triatoma maculata (Erichson 1848)].

This article presents a study on seroepidemiological, entomologic, and risk factors for domiciliary infestation in a circumscribed area infested with Triatoma maculata in Parroquia Xaguas, Urdaneta Municipality, Lara State, Venezuela. One hundred and forty households, 509 persons, and 110 dogs were sampled. Serum anti-Trypanosoma cruzi antibodies were determined by means of ELISA and MABA techniques using recombinant antigens.

Human chagasic IgGs bind to cardiac muscarinic receptors and impair L-type Ca2+ currents.

Objectives: Antibodies against cardiac G protein-coupled receptors have been reported in sera from chronic chagasic patients (CChP) and other non-parasitic cardiomyopathies, but the effects and underlying mechanism of interaction between these antibodies and heart cells are not fully established. To address this point, binding of antibodies purified from sera of CChP patients and normal blood donors (NBD) to cardiac muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChR) and their effect on L-type Ca(2+) currents were examined.

Methods And Results: Saturation [3H]NMS binding experiments with porcine atrial membranes showed that B(max) in the presence of CChP-immunoglobulin G (IgG) decreased from 280.