Unraveling Chagas disease transmission through the oral route: Gateways to Trypanosoma cruzi infection and target tissues
2017
Oral transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease, is the
most important route of infection in Brazilian Amazon and Venezuela. Other South American
countries have also reported outbreaks associated with food consumption. A recent study
showed the importance of parasite contact with oral cavity to induce a highly severe acute
disease in mice. However, it remains uncertain the primary site of parasite entry and multiplication
due to an oral infection. Here, we evaluated the presence of T. cruzi Dm28c luciferase
(Dm28c-luc) parasites in orally infected mice, by bioluminescence and quantitative real-time
PCR. In vivo bioluminescent images indicated the nasomaxillary region as the site of parasite
invasion in the host, becoming consistently infected throughout the acute phase. At later
moments, 7 and 21 days post-infection (dpi), luminescent signal is denser in the thorax,
abdomen and genital region, because of parasite dissemination in different tissues. Ex vivo
analysis demonstrated that the nasomaxillary region, heart, mandibular lymph nodes, liver,
spleen, brain, epididymal fat associated to male sex organs, salivary glands, cheek muscle,
mesenteric fat and lymph nodes, stomach, esophagus, small and large intestine are target
tissues at latter moments of infection. In the same line, amastigote nests of Dm28c GFP T.
cruzi were detected in the nasal cavity of 6 dpi mice. Parasite quantification by real-time
qPCR at 7 and 21 dpi showed predominant T. cruzi detection and expansion in mouse nasal
cavity. Moreover, T. cruzi DNA was also observed in the mandibular lymph nodes, pituitary
gland, heart, liver, small intestine and spleen at 7 dpi, and further, disseminated to other tissues,
such as the brain, stomach, esophagus and large intestine at 21 dpi. Our results
clearly demonstrated that oral cavity and adjacent compartments is the main target region in
oral T. cruzi infection leading to parasite multiplication at the nasal cavity.
Keywords:
- Correction
- Source
- Cite
- Save
- Machine Reading By IdeaReader
70
References
40
Citations
NaN
KQI