Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have identified a new potential target to prevent the spread of Chagas disease.
The parasitic infection is transmitted through the bite of the kissing bug in Central and South America and more recently in the United States. Chagas can harm the heart and digestive system years or even decades after initial infection, but it often goes undiagnosed. About 12,000 people each year die from Chagas-related complications, according to health officials.
"It's called a silent killer," UC Assistant Professor Noelia Lander said. "Many people don't realize they have Chagas until complications from the infection kill them."
Chagas is transmitted through a parasite, T cruzi, that spends part of its lifecycle in the guts of kissing bugs.
Biologists found that the parasite relies on compartmentalizing functions relating to its survival and infection within messenger molecules.
One relays messages to help cells adjust to sudden changes in environmental stress created when it transitions between animals hosts. Another messenger molecule triggers the transformation of the invading parasite to resist the human immune system and reproduce. And these compartmentalized functions could be the opening researchers are looking for to interrupt the parasite's deadly lifecycle.
This is the same strategy employed in drugs used to attack Plasmodium, the parasite responsible for the world's most deadly parasitic disease, malaria.
The study was published in the journal PLOS Pathogens .The research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Institutes of Health.
The Chagas parasite spends part of its life in kissing bugs, which feed on the blood of mammals like mice, dogs and people. Kissing bugs typically poop as they feed. The poop contains the parasite, which enters the person's bloodstream through the bite wound, eyes or mouth.
Other kissing bugs get infected with the parasite by drinking the blood of infected mammals in a gruesome cycle.
All the while, the parasite must contend with extreme environmental changes in temperature, acidity and availability of nutrients to survive its epic transitions from insect to environment to animal host.
In her molecular parasitology lab at UC, Lander and her research team examined the ways T. cruzi survives in different hostile environments. They deployed technology such as the gene-editing tool CRISPR/Cas9, immunofluorescence analysis and electron microscopy.
Doctoral student and lead author Milad Ahmed said the research project is meaningful because it could lead to successful health interventions.
"It's one of the biggest motivations for doing research. It feels great to work on research that will help people lead a better life," Ahmed said.
