Oral infection and survival of Trypanosoma cruzi in sugar cane juice conditioned at different temperatures

Abstract

The current most important form of transmission for Trypanosoma cruzi is the oral route, being responsible for high mortality during the acute phase in infected individuals. Therefore, the present study has investigated the possibility of infection for this parasite using sugar cane juice in different temperatures employing metacyclic trypomastigotes obtained from xenodiagnosis performed in Swiss mice previously infected with T.cruzi Y strain, and then diluted in 15 mL of sugar cane juice. In addition, 20 mice were infected using 2,5 mL of that mixture for the stomach histopathological analysis, which was euthanized after the second, fourth, tenth, and fifteenth days after infection. Concurrently, six batches of 10 mice were fed using 1,5 mL of the mixture kept for 12 hours at temperatures of -80ºC, -20ºC, + 2ºC, + 28ºC, + 60ºC, and + 80º C, for later infection verification. Inflammatory infiltrate was found after the second day of infection, and amastigotes nests were present after the fourth, tenth, and fifteenth day in the margo plicatus stomach region. Viable trypomastigotes were observed in the microtubes kept at -80ºC, -20,ºC and + 2ºC, but the animal’s infection was observed in -80ºC and + 2ºC groups. In vitro tests demonstrated the decrease of T. cruzi trypomastigote viability, being negative after 120 hours at -20ºC, 144 hours at + 2ºC, in contrast to the maintenance of survival after 168 hours at -80ºC. We also observed the ability of survival and infection of T. cruzi packaged at -80ºC without the use of preservatives and, therefore, less suitable for storing food.