Retinal dysfunction in patients with chronic Chagas’disease is associated to anti-Trypanosoma cruzi antibodies that crossreact with rhodopsin

SILVIA C. MATSUMOTO; VIVIAN LABOVSKY; MARCELA RONCORONI; MARÍA C. GUIDA; LAURA GIMÉNEZ; JORGE MITELMAN; HORACIO GORI; RENATA JURGELEVICIUS; ALEJANDRO GRILLO; PABLO MANFREDI; MARIANO J. LEVIN; CRISTINA PAVETO

FASEB JOURNAL

The Federation of American Society for Experimental Biology

Año: 2006 vol. 20 p. 550 - 552

0892-6638

To confirm the existence of a selective dysfunction of retinal rods in patients with chronic Chagas’ heart disease (cChHD), we performed both clinical and electrophysiological studies (i.e., electroretinogram (ERG) and retino fluorescent angiography (RFA)). Serial biochemical experiments were designed to elucidate the molecular mechanism underlying the physiological abnormalities of the visual process. Cross reactivity between anti-Trypanosoma cruzi antibodies and human G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) has been already described. As the photo pigment rhodopsin present in retinal rod cells is a member of this family of receptors, an interaction between antibodies against T. cruzi and rhodopsin is suspected. We aimed to investigate the role of specific monoclonal antibodies against this parasite and beta-adrenergic receptors  as well as of IgG fractions from cChHD patients in the interference of light signal transduction of the rod outer segments (ROS) membranes.