Molecular Identification of Trypanosoma cruzi I Tropism for Central Nervous System in Chagas Reactivation Due to AIDS

BURGOS JM,.; BEGHER S,; SILVA HM,; BISIO M,; DUFFY T,; LEVIN MJ; MACEDO AM,; SCHIJMAN AG

Am J Trop Med Hyg.

Elsevier

Año: 2008 vol. 78 p. 294 - 297

Trypanosoma cruzi lineages, microsatellite allelic polymorphism, and mithocondrial gene haplotypes were directly typified from peripheral blood and cerebrospinal fluid specimens of a Bolivian patient with Chagas disease with accompanying AIDS and central nervous system severe involvement. Of note, the patient’s blood was infected by a mixture of T. cruzi I and T. cruzi IId/e polyclonal populations while the cerebrospinal fluid showed only a monoclonal T. cruzi I population. Our findings do not corroborate the original assumption of innocuity for T. cruzi I in the southern cone of the Americas and highlight lineage I tropism for central nervous system causing lethal Chagas reactivation.