Trypanosome stocks isolated from bats (Chiroptera) and belonging to the subgenus Schizotrypanum were analyzed by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE) at 22 loci, random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) with 14 primers and/or cytochrome b nucleotide sequence. Bat trypanosomes belonged to the species Trypanosoma cruzi marinkellei (10 stocks), Trypanosoma dionisii (four stocks) and Trypanosoma...

Theracurmin is a nanoparticle formulation derived from curcumin, bioactive compound known for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas disease, triggers an intense inflammatory response in mammals also causes severe tissue damage. To evaluate immunomodulatory antiparasitic effects Theracurmin, Swiss mice were experimentally infected wi...

Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas' disease, which affects a large number of individuals in Central and South America, is transmitted to vertebrate hosts by blood-sucking insects. This protozoan is an obligate intracellular parasite. The infective forms of the parasite are metacyclic and bloodstream trypomastigote and amastigote. Metacyclic trypomastigotes are released with the fe...

The isolation of biological clones of Trypanosoma cruzi by microscopically dispensing individual organisms or by serial dilution is laborious and time consuming. The inability to resolve mixed T. cruzi infections, from vectors and hosts, and to isolate clones of slow growing genotypes by efficient plating on solid media, has hindered characterisation studies and downstream applications. We have...

A DNA-DNA hybridization procedure is described in which radiolabeled total parasite DNA is used to detect Trypanosoma cruzi spotted directly onto nylon membrane. Under conditions that favor hybridization of repetitive DNA sequences, the radiolabeled total DNA was able to detect as few as five parasites spotted onto nylon membrane. Trypanosomes were detectable in blood from mice with T. cruzi pa...

Trypanosoma cruzi is the causative parasite of Chagas' disease, while the closely related T. rangeli is non-pathogenic in humans. Restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) of a portion of the cysteine proteinase gene were used to distinguish T. cruzi from T. rangeli. This procedure was very sensitive, with a single cell of either species being sufficient for the PCR. The sensitivity and...

A novel potent trypanocidal diterpene, komaroviquinone, was reduced by Trypanosoma cruzi old yellow enzyme (TcOYE) to its semiquinone radical. The reductase activity in trypanosome lysates was completely immunoabsorbed by anti-TcOYE antibody. Since TcOYE is expressed throughout the T. cruzi life cycle, komaroviquinone is an interesting candidate for developing new antichagasic drugs.

In this study, we isolated Trypanosoma cruzi from chronic Chagas heart disease and from megaesophagus patients. The parasite stock hSLU239 (heart disease) yielded clones h1 and h2, whereas stock mSEU142 (megaesophagus) yielded clones m1, m2, m3 and m4. The parasite growth kinetics, doubling time and differentiation in axenic liquid medium showed broad behavioral diversity. It was shown that a p...

The characterisation of the gene encoding Trypanosoma cruzi CL Brener phosphofructokinase (PFK) and the biochemical properties of the expressed enzyme are reported here. In contradiction with previous reports, the PFK genes of CL Brener and YBM strain T. cruzi were found to be similar to their Leishmania mexicana and Trypanosoma brucei homologs in terms of both kinetic properties and size, with...