Journal Article Epublish
PubMed: 39135121 DOI: 10.1186/s13071-024-06401-7
Humans seropositive for Trypanosoma cruzi co-infected with intestinal helminths have higher infectiousness, parasitaemia and Th2-type response in the Argentine Chaco.
Parasit Vectors 17(1):340
Authors: Gustavo Fabián Enriquez, Natalia Paula Macchiaverna, Graciela Garbossa, Luz Piedad Quebrada Palacio, Bárbara Leonor Ojeda, Jacqueline Bua, María Sol Gaspe, Rubén Cimino, Ricardo Esteban Gürtler, Miriam Postan, Marta Victoria Cardinal
Affiliations
- Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución. Laboratorio de Eco-Epidemiología. Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Instituto de Ecología, Genética y Evolución (IEGEBA), CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución. Laboratorio de Eco-Epidemiología. Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Instituto de Ecología, Genética y Evolución (IEGEBA), CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Laboratorio de Parasitología Clínica y Ambiental, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, IQUIBICEN-CONICET-UBA), Instituto de Investigaciones en Salud Pública, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución. Laboratorio de Eco-Epidemiología. Buenos Aires, Argentina. Instituto de Ecología, Genética y Evolución (IEGEBA), CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Institute of Virology, Helmholtz Centre Munich, German Research Centre for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany.
- Instituto Nacional de Parasitología Dr. M. Fatala Chabén, Administración Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud Dr. C.G. Malbrán, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Instituto de Investigaciones de Enfermedades Tropicales (IIET). Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)-CCT Salta, Universidad Nacional de Salta, Sede Regional Orán, Salta, Argentina.
- Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Cátedra de Química Biológica, Universidad Nacional de Salta, Salta, Argentina.
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Abstract
BACKGROUND
The Gran Chaco ecoregion is a well-known hotspot of several neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) including Chagas disease, soil-transmitted helminthiasis and multiparasitic infections. Interspecific interactions between parasite species can modify host susceptibility, pathogenesis and transmissibility through immunomodulation. Our objective was to test the association between human co-infection with intestinal parasites and host parasitaemia, infectiousness to the vector and immunological profiles in Trypanosoma cruzi-seropositive individuals residing in an endemic region of the Argentine Chaco.
METHODS
We conducted a cross-sectional serological survey for T. cruzi infection along with an intestinal parasite survey in two adjacent rural villages. Each participant was tested for T. cruzi and Strongyloides stercoralis infection by serodiagnosis, and by coprological tests for intestinal parasite detection. Trypanosoma cruzi bloodstream parasite load was determined by quantitative PCR (qPCR), host infectiousness by artificial xenodiagnosis and serum human cytokine levels by flow cytometry.
RESULTS
The seroprevalence for T. cruzi was 16.1% and for S. stercoralis 11.5% (n = 87). We found 25.3% of patients with Enterobius vermicularis. The most frequent protozoan parasites were Blastocystis spp. (39.1%), Giardia lamblia (6.9%) and Cryptosporidium spp. (3.4%). Multiparasitism occurred in 36.8% of the examined patients. Co-infection ranged from 6.9% to 8.1% for T. cruzi-seropositive humans simultaneously infected with at least one protozoan or helminth species, respectively. The relative odds of being positive by qPCR or xenodiagnosis (i.e. infectious) of 28 T. cruzi-seropositive patients was eight times higher in people co-infected with at least one helminth species than in patients with no such co-infection. Trypanosoma cruzi parasite load and host infectiousness were positively associated with helminth co-infection in a multiple regression analysis. Interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) response, measured in relation to interleukin (IL)-4 among humans infected with T. cruzi only, was 1.5-fold higher than for T. cruzi-seropositive patients co-infected with helminths. The median concentration of IL-4 was significantly higher in T. cruzi-seropositive patients with a positive qPCR test than in qPCR-negative patients.
CONCLUSIONS
Our results show a high level of multiparasitism and suggest that co-infection with intestinal helminths increased T. cruzi parasitaemia and upregulated the Th2-type response in the study patients.
MeSH
Interferon-Gamma, Coinfection, Xenodiagnosis, Parasites, Parasite Load, Chagas Disease, Infections