Lineage-specific rapid diagnostic tests can resolve Trypanosoma cruzi TcII/V/VI ecological and epidemiological associations in the Argentine Chaco

Lineage-specific rapid diagnostic tests can resolve Trypanosoma cruzi TcII/V/VI ecological and epidemiological associations in the Argentine Chaco

Blog Article

Abstract Background Trypanosoma cruzi, the protozoan agent of Chagas disease, is comprised of at least Tack room 6 genetic lineages (TcI-TcVI).Their geographical distribution, clinical associations and reservoir hosts are not fully elucidated, as genotyping is hampered due to the difficulty in isolating representative populations of organisms.Lineage-specific serological techniques may address these issues.Methods Trypanosoma cruzi lineage-specific serological assays were performed on human, canine, feline and armadillo sera from the Gran Chaco in northern Argentina, a region of ongoing transmission.Synthetic peptides representing lineage-specific epitopes of the trypomastigote small surface antigen (TSSA) were used in ELISA, and the TcII/V/VI shared epitope peptide (TSSApep-II/V/VI) was used in the Chagas Sero K-SeT rapid diagnostic test (RDT).

Results Chagas Sero K-SeT RDT, using Protein G to detect human and canine IgG, was at least as sensitive as TSSApep-II/V/VI ELISA using specific secondary antibodies.For sera from humans TSSApep-II/V/VI seroprevalence by Chagas Sero K-SeT was 273/393 (69.5%), for dogs 48/73 (65.8%) and for armadillos 1/7 (14.3%); by ELISA for cats 5/19 (26.

3%).The seroprevalence for humans was similar to that for Bolivian patients, amongst whom we previously observed an association of TSSApep-II/V/VI seropositivity with severity of cardiomyopathy.In humans, prevalence of TSSApep-II/V/VI recognition was associated with locality, Cough Remedies and with increasing and decreasing age within the Qom and Creole populations, respectively.For dogs TSSApep-II/V/VI recognition was associated with being born before community-wide insecticide spraying (P = 0.05) and with Qom household (P < 0.

001).Conclusions We show here that Chagas Sero K-SeT RDT can replace ELISA for TSSApep-II/V/VI serology of humans and dogs; for humans there were statistically significant associations between a positive Chagas Sero K-SeT RDT and being resident in Area IV, and for dogs association with Qom household or with being born before the mass spraying campaign; we also show that with cats the TcII/V/VI epitope can be detected by ELISA.We assessed the lineage distribution in an unprecedented 83% of the human T.cruzi-seropositive population.These results form the basis for more detailed studies, enabling rapid in-the-field surveillance of the distribution and clustering of these lineages among humans and mammalian reservoirs of T.

cruzi infection.