Immunosuppressive therapy and risk of Chagas disease reactivation

MARCHETTO, MATIAS; PIÑERO, MARIA BELEN; REPETTO, SILVIA ANALIA; ALBA SOTO, CATALINA D.

Mar del Plata

Congreso; Reunión Anual de Sociedades de Biociencias 2023. LXVIII Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Clínica (SAIC).; 2022

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Clínica (SAIC).

IMMUNOSUPPRESSIVE THERAPY AND RISK OF CHAGAS DISEASE REACTIVATIONMatías Ildebrando Marchetto 1, Maria Belén Piñero 1, Silvia Repetto 1,2, Catalina Dirney Alba Soto 1.1 Facultad de Medicina. IMPAM (UBA-CONICET); 2 División de Infectología, Hospital de Clínicas José de San MartínThe risk of reactivation of chronic T. cruzi infection following treatment with immunosuppressive drugs is not fully understood yet, thus we developed an experimental model to evaluate this risk, and to identify host factors that determine reactivation. We studied the course of T. cruzi infection in mice at chronic stage following treat ment with conventional immunosuppressive drugs used for autoimmune diseases or transplanted individuals. Balb/c female mice at 120 dpi with T. cruzi (K98 strain) were treated with increasing oral doses of Leflunomide (LE), Tacrolimus (TA), Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and Azathioprine (AZA). Control infected animals were administered vehicle alone (Carboxymethylcellulose; CMC 1%) and control uninfected animals were treated with each drug. Reactivation was detected in 60% (3/5) of mice treated with MMF (25dpi) and AZA (39 dpi), being cumulative parasitemia significantly higher with MMF (