Chagas disease

Kingdom. Protozoa.

• bug Triatoma Triatomines

• preference for thin skin (head region/face, mouth) => kissing bug

ransmitted by contact with faeces/urine of infected blood-sucking triatomine bugs

The term “molecular mimicry” has been used frequently in the literature on autoimmunity and CD to refer to the similarity in either amino acid sequence or structural conformation between molecules or segments of molecules of T. cruzi and those of its hosts.

- while the prevalence of CD in Latin America has been reduced in recent decades, a dramatic increase in the number of CD cases in non- endemic countries is observed (immigration/ global traffic)

T. cruzi infection might activate T and B cells, leading to autoimmunity. Among the first mechanisms, molecular mimicry has been claimed as the most important mechanism leading to autoimmunity and pathology in the chronic phase of this disease.

• transmitted via reduviid bugs: Triatoma,

  Panstrongylus, Rhodnius

• Trypanosomes are transmitted via excrement

• enter the human host via a wound caused by the

  bite by bug

after cell invasion, metacyclic trypomastigotes are restrained within a parasitophorous vacuole (PV), from where they escape, transform into amastigotes, and multiply in the cytosol.