Induction of antibodies reactive to cardiac myosin and development of heart alterations in cruzipain-immunized mice and their offspring

Cruzipain, a major Trypanosoma cruzi antigen, conditions the host immune response in favor of parasite

“…Interestingly, a significant increase of the CD19 + lymphocytes in spleens from immune mice was found in the present study. Autoreactive antibodies to skeletal muscle and heart myosin have been recently reported by us in mice immunized with cruzipain, suggesting an activation of B cell population [10,11]. Immune T cell numbers with CD3 positive marker were similar to control ones.…”

“…Antibody response is mainly directed to the epitopes present in the cruzipain C-terminal domain [7]. It has been previously demonstrated that mice immunization with enzymatically inactive cruzipain was capable of generating humoral and cellular autoreactive response against myosin from skeletal and heart muscles, leading to functional and structural alterations in target tissues [10,11]. We used cruzipain as an antigen devoid of enzymatic activity to ensure that the effects observed in our experimental model may Fig.…”

Immunological imbalance between IFN-³ and IL-10 levels in the sera of patients with the cardiac form of Chagas disease

“…Antibody production and T-cell responses have been studied in patients with Chagas disease (Morgan et al 1996, Cordeiro et al 2001) and experimental models (Giordanengo et al 2000, Guedes et al 2008. Mononuclear cells from the heart tissue or peripheral blood of patients with the cardiac form of the disease produce higher IFN-γ and TNF-α and lower or absent production of IL-10 and IL-4 compared with asymptomatic individuals (Correa-Oliveira et al 1999, Ribeirao et al 2000, Gomes et al 2003.…”

“…Correlation between the different clinical forms of Chagas disease and the levels of IgG isotypes has not been clearly defined. Several authors have tried to demonstrate the correlation between IgG isotypes and the severity of the different clinical forms of Chagas disease both in patient groups (Cerban et al 1993, Morgan et al 1996, Michailowsky et al 2003 and in experimental models (Giordanengo et al 2000, Guedes et al 2008. While some studies detected no differences between the levels of these immunoglobulins (IgG) among individuals with different clinical manifestations (Cerban et al 1993, Michailowsky et al 2003, others demonstrated higher levels of IgG2 antibodies in the sera of patients with cardiac and digestive manifestations of the disease (Morgan et al 1996, Cordeiro et al 2001.…”

Chagas disease cardiomyopathy: current concepts of an old disease

“…desmin, myosin and actin) and proteins with functional activities, such as β1-adrenergic and M2-muscarinic cholinergic receptors (Table 1) (reviewed in CUNHA- NETO et al, 2004). Immunization of mice with the T. cruzi protein cruzipain induced autoantibodies to skeletal and cardiac myosin and to the cardiac muscarinic cholinergic receptor, leading to muscle damage and heart conduction abnormalities (GIORDANENGO et al, 2000). Another notable finding was the development of autoreactive anti-heart antibodies and heart functional alterations following the immunization of BALB/c mice with T. cruzi ribosomal P1 and P2 protein synthetic peptide (MOTRAN et al, 2000).…”