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Review
. 2017:97:1-45.
doi: 10.1016/bs.apar.2016.10.001. Epub 2016 Nov 14.

Chagas Disease Diagnostic Applications: Present Knowledge and Future Steps

Affiliations
Review

Chagas Disease Diagnostic Applications: Present Knowledge and Future Steps

V Balouz et al. Adv Parasitol. 2017.

Abstract

Chagas disease, caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, is a lifelong and debilitating illness of major significance throughout Latin America and an emergent threat to global public health. Being a neglected disease, the vast majority of Chagasic patients have limited access to proper diagnosis and treatment, and there is only a marginal investment into R&D for drug and vaccine development. In this context, identification of novel biomarkers able to transcend the current limits of diagnostic methods surfaces as a main priority in Chagas disease applied research. The expectation is that these novel biomarkers will provide reliable, reproducible and accurate results irrespective of the genetic background, infecting parasite strain, stage of disease, and clinical-associated features of Chagasic populations. In addition, they should be able to address other still unmet diagnostic needs, including early detection of congenital T. cruzi transmission, rapid assessment of treatment efficiency or failure, indication/prediction of disease progression and direct parasite typification in clinical samples. The lack of access of poor and neglected populations to essential diagnostics also stresses the necessity of developing new methods operational in point-of-care settings. In summary, emergent diagnostic tests integrating these novel and tailored tools should provide a significant impact on the effectiveness of current intervention schemes and on the clinical management of Chagasic patients. In this chapter, we discuss the present knowledge and possible future steps in Chagas disease diagnostic applications, as well as the opportunity provided by recent advances in high-throughput methods for biomarker discovery.

Keywords: Biomarker discovery; Chagas disease; Diagnostic applications; Serotyping; Strain polymorphisms; Trypanosoma cruzi.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Schematic diagram showing the T. cruzi life cycle and different biological features that contribute to ensure its transmission and the establishment of multiple interactions with insect vectors and infected humans. Those features for which there is direct or indirect experimental evidence suggesting inter-strain variability are denoted in italics.

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