by Ruiz-Lancheros E, Rasoolizadeh A, Chatelain E, Garcia-Bournissen F, Moroni S, Moscatelli G, Altcheh J, Ndao M. Open Forum Infectious Diseases 2018, 5(11): ofy236. doi 10.1093/ofid/ofy236
Summary: There are no reliable tests or validated biomarkers to determine parasitological cure following treatment for Chagas disease. Seronegative conversion, the only marker of cure, can take decades to occur in adults, but happens more rapidly in children. The authors therefore used samples from children treated with benznidazole to investigate a potential correlation between the presence or absence of previously identified potential markers of cure, Apolipoprotein A-1 (ApoA1) and Fibronectin (FBN), with seroreversion.
The study results suggest that fragments of ApoA1 and FBN may be valid biomarkers and that their predictive capacity is potentially better than that of serology. Potential applications include predicting cure in clinical settings, treatment efficacy in clinical trials of new drugs and drug regimen, and discrimination between healthy and T. cruzi-infected samples.
