The Trypanosoma cruzi parasitophorous vacuole maturation: the key for a successful infection

ROMANO, PATRICIA SILVIA

Mendoza

Workshop; French-Argentine Workshop: Cell functioning in healthy and infected cells; 2018

Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo.

Chagas disease is a vector-borne parasitic infection caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Similar to others from the same family, T. cruzi has a biphasic cycle developed in the insect vector (under the epimastigote and metacyclic trypomastigote forms) and in mammalian organisms wich posees the amastigote form, the intracelular replicative form of T. cruzi, in cardiac and muscle tissues and the trypomastigotes wich are the infective forms of the parasite, that can be seen in blood. Recently was postulated a new paradigm for T. cruzi invasión which demonstrated that both previously theories were true. To invade cells T. cruzi exploits the membrane repair mechanism that depends of lysosomal exocytosis. Trypomastigotes produced a cell wounding that induces the lysosomal exocytosis in the place of wound and a compensatory endocytosis of broken membranes which also contain the parasites.