Chagas disease is a so-called "neglected disease" and endemic to Latin America. Nifurtimox and benznidazole are drugs that have considerable efficacy in the treatment of the acute phase of the disease but cause many significant side effects. Furthermore, in the Chronic Phase its efficiency is reduced and their therapeutic effectiveness is dependent on the type of T. cruzi strain. For this reaso...

INTRODUCTION This study reports for the first time the infection of Rhodnius montenegrensis by Trypanosoma rangeli. METHODS The triatomines were manually collected in Attalea speciosa in the municipality of Buritis, Rondônia. The identification of the trypanosomatid species was confirmed by multiplex PCR. RESULTS All of the collected triatomines were R. montenegrensis. The analysis confirme...

The ability to resist complement differs between the Y and Colombiana Trypanosoma cruzi strains. We found that the Y strain of T. cruzi was more able to resist the classical and lectin pathways of complement activation than the Colombiana strain. The complement C2 receptor inhibitor trispanning gene (CRIT) is highly conserved in both strains. At the protein level, CRIT is expressed only in stat...

Nicastrin (NICT) is a transmembrane protein physically associated with the polytypical aspartyl protease presenilin that plays vital role in correct localization and stabilization of to membrane-bound γ-secretase complex. This complex involved regulation wide range cellular events, including cell signaling endocytosed membrane proteins for their trafficking processing. Methods: In Trypanosoma c...

Trypanosoma cruzi parasites causing Chagas disease are passed between mammals by the triatomine bug vector. Within the insect, T. cruzi epimastigote-stage cells replicate and progress through the increasingly nutrient-restricted digestive tract, differentiating into infectious, nonreplicative metacyclic trypomastigotes. Thus, we evaluated how nutrient perturbations or metacyclogenesis affects m...

Uptake of transferrin by epimastigote forms of the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi occurs mainly through a cytostome/ cytopharynx, via uncoated endocytic vesicles that bud off from the bottom of the cytopharynx. We have here examined whether detergent-resistant membrane (DRM) domains might be involved in this process. Purified whole cell membrane fractions were assayed for cholesterol levels and us...