Seroprevalence of Triatoma virus (Dicistroviridae: Cripaviridae) antibodies in Chagas disease patients

JAILSON FB QUERIDO; MARÍA G ECHEVERRÍA; G. MARTI; RITA MEDINA COSTA; MARIA LAURA SUSEVICH; JORGE RABINOVICH

PARASITES AND VECTORS

BIOMED CENTRAL LTD

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2015 vol. 8 p. 29 - 38

1756-3305

AbstractBackground: Chagas disease is caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, and humans acquire the parasite by exposure tocontaminated feces from hematophagous insect vectors known as triatomines. Triatoma virus (TrV) is the sole viralpathogen of triatomines, and is transmitted among insects through the fecal-oral route and, as it happens withT. cruzi, the infected insects release the virus when defecating during or after blood uptake.Methods: In this work, we analysed the occurrence of anti-TrV antibodies in human sera from Chagas diseaseendemic and non-endemic countries, and developed a mathematical model to estimate the transmission probabilityof TrV from insects to man, which ranged between 0.00053 and 0.0015.Results: Our results confirm that people with Chagas disease living in Bolivia, Argentina and Mexico have been exposedto TrV, and that TrV is unable to replicate in human hosts.Conclusions: We presented the first experimental evidence of antibodies against TrV structural proteins in human sera.