Cardiovascular risk factors in chronic Chagas disease are associated with a different profile of putative heart-pathogenic antibodies

DIEZ C; GEA S; MARCIPAR I; PEZZOTTO S; BELOSCAR J; PELLIZZON O; MARCIPAR A; BOTTASSO O

FEMS IMMUNOLOGY AND MEDICAL MICROBIOLOGY

Año: 2006 vol. 48 p. 26 - 26

0928-8244

nbsp;Given that cardiovascular risk factors (CRF), such as smoking, alcoholism and hypertension, may contribute to the development of heart lesions, chronically Trypanosoma cruzi-infected individuals were studied to explore the relationship between the presence of such CRF, cardiomyopathy and antibodies that have been proposedto play a pathogenic role in Chagas´disease.  The targets of these antibodies were T. cruzi antigens such us cruzipain (Cz), a P ribosomal antigen (P2), and a component of myelin sheats also present in T. cruzi (sulphatide). Individuals were classified into four groupson the bases for specific serology and presence of CRF, subjects with T. cruzi infection and CRF, those with positive serology and no CRF, seronegatives with CRF, and seronegatives without CRF, were analysed. Seronegatives or seropositives with CRF showed a greater occurrence of heart involvement (chest X-ray and/