by Golizeh M, Nam J, Chatelain E, Jackson Y, Ohlund LB, Rasoolizadeh A, Camargo FV, Mahrouche L, Furtos A, Sleno L, Ndao M. Heliyon 2022;8(12)E12380. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12380
Summary: Current diagnostic tools for Chagas disease are inadequate for chronically infected patients. The authors of this study have previously shown that fragments of apolipoprotein A1 and fibronectin have potential as biomarkers of treatment efficacy. To understand the underlying processes, they conducted untargeted metabolomics analysis on samples from chronic Chagas disease patients, prior to and three years after treatment, and from demographically matched people without Chagas disease. Sex steroids were among the most significantly altered metabolites in Chagas disease patients, a result corroborated by a study in T. cruzi-infected mice. The metabolic alterations identified in this study shed light on the pathogenesis of Chagas disease and provide the basis for developing novel assays for the diagnosis and screening of patients.
