“…Neuron regeneration and survival seem critical for the healthy status of chagasic individuals, because if the patients progress to chronic symptomatic disease, as is the case in Ͻ50% infected individuals, they exhibit extensive destruction of the autonomic nervous system in the GI tract and͞or heart and, consequently, inexorably will die with megaesophagus, megacolon, and͞or cardiomegaly (3,4). The mechanism underlying neuronal regeneration and survival in Chagas' disease remains unknown.…”