Chagas Disease Cardiomyopathy: Immunopathology and Genetics

Chagas Disease Cardiomyopathy: Immunopathology and Genetics

Chagas disease, caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, is endemic in Latin America and affects ca. 10 million people worldwide. About 30% of Chagas disease patients develop chronic Chagas disease cardiomyopathy (CCC), a particularly lethal inflammatory cardiomyopathy that occurs decades after the initial infection, while most patients remain asymptomatic. Mortality rate is higher than that ...

Immunopathology of cardiomyopathy in the experimental Chagas disease.

The mechanisms by which Trypanosoma cruzi causes cardiomyopathy and induces neuronal destruction are discussed in this paper. The results suggest that autoimmunity in the chronic phase is the main cause of the progressive cardiac destruction, and that autoreactivity is restricted to the CD4+ T cell compartment. During the acute phase, the neuronal and cardiac fiber destruction occurs when ruptu...

Immunopathology of Chagas disease.

The main clinical forms of Chagas disease (acute, indeterminate and chronic cardiac) present strong evidences for the participation of the immune system on pathogenesis. Although parasite multiplication is evident during acute infection, the intense acute myocarditis of this phase exhibits clear ultrastructural signs of cell-mediated immune damage, inflicted to parasitized and non-parasitized m...

Evolution on the immunopathology of Chagas disease.

Cardiomyopathy of Chagas' Disease

C hagas' disease, or American trypanosomiasis, is caused by the hemoflagellate Trypanosoma cruzi and is the leading cause of cardiac disease in South and Central America. The insect vector occupied the attention of Charles Darwin during a voyage to Argentina in 1888, when he described in detail its peculiar nocturnal blood-sucking habits. Indeed, Darwin's own subsequent clinical symptoms have b...