Chagas Disease: Basic Investigations and Challeges

KOLLIKER FRERS, RODOLFO ALBERTO

IntechOpen Book

Año: 2018 p. 24

978-953-51-3252-3

AbstractThe economic and social burden associated with Chagas disease morbidity and mortalityis regrettably large in Latin America causing more deaths than does any other parasiticdisease. Inflammatory dilated cardiomyopathy is, by far, the most important clinicalconsequence of Trypanosoma cruzi infection. The insidious persistence of this parasitedetermines chronic myocarditis progression. The clinical outcome is multifactorial anddepends on the particular parasite strain and virulence factors, the infective load androute of infection, the parasite ability to by-pass the protective immune response, theintensity and type of immune response during the acute infective phase, and the hostgenetic background. From the immunological viewpoint, host control of T. cruzi has beenshown to depend on both humoral and cell-mediated adaptive responses and from theinnate immune system. In this review, we discuss the most relevant literature conveyinginformation on the relevance of identifying a subset of systemic inflammatory moleculesas potential markers of cardiovascular risk morbidity and mortality in patients withChagas disease. Concurrently, a direct role for the parasite in the perpetuation of myocardialinflammation is substantiated. Ultimately, host-parasite interactions determinethe course of the ongoing systemic inflammation and the perpetuation of myocardialinflammation in genetically predisposed patients