IgE antibodies against Trypanosoma cruzi arginine kinase in patients with chronic Chagas disease

VALERA-VERA, EDWARD; CONCEPCIÓN, JUAN L; CÁCERES, ANA J; ACEVEDO, GONZALO; FERNÁNDEZ, MARISA; HERNÁNDEZ, YOLANDA; DIGIROLAMO, FABIO A; DUSCHAK, VILMA; SOPRANO, LUCIANA; PEREIRA, CA; MIRANDA, MARIANA; GOMEZ, KARINA

MOLECULAR IMMUNOLOGY

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2021

0161-5890

Arginine kinase (AK) is an enzyme present in various invertebrates, as well asin some trypanosomatids such as T. cruzi, the etiological agent that causesChagas disease. In invertebrates, this protein acts as an allergen inducing anIgE-type humoral immune response. Since AK is a highly conserved protein, wedecided to study whether patients with chronic Chagas disease (CCD) producespecific antibodies against T. cruzi AK (TcAK). Plasma from patients with CCD,with and without cardiac alterations and non-infected individuals were evaluatedfor the presence of anti-TcAK IgG and IgE antibodies by ELISA, includingdetection of specific IgG subclasses. Our results showed that the levels ofspecific anti-TcAK IgG and IgE were different between infected and noninfectedindividuals, but comparable between those with different clinicalmanifestations. Interestingly, anti-TcAK IgG4 antibodies associated with IgEmediatedallergenic processes were also increased in CCD patients. Finally, wefound that several of the predicted B cell epitopes in TcAK matched allergenicpeptides previously described for its homologues in other organisms. Ourresults revealed for the first time a parasite?s specific IgE antibody target andsuggest that TcAK could contribute to delineate an inefficient B cell response byprompting a bias towards a Th2 profile. These findings also shed light on apotential allergenic response in the context of T. cruzi infection.