Assessing the effectiveness of curative benznidazole treatment in preventing chronic cardiac pathology in experimental models of Chagas disease.

Assessing the effectiveness of curative benznidazole treatment in preventing chronic cardiac pathology in experimental models of Chagas disease. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2018 Aug 06;: Authors: Fortes Francisco A, Jayawardhana S, Taylor MC, Lewis MD, Kelly JM Abstract Chagasic heart disease develops in 30% of those infected with the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, but can take decades to become symptomatic. Because of this, it has been difficult to assess the extent to which anti-parasitic therapy can prevent the development of pathology. We sought to address this question using experimental murine models, exploiting highly sensitive bioluminescent imaging to monitor curative efficacy. Mice were inoculated with bioluminescent parasites and then cured with benznidazole in either the acute or chronic stage of infection. At the experimental end-point (5-6 months post-infection), heart tissue was removed and assessed for inflammation and fibrosis, two widely used markers of cardiac pathology. Infection of BALB/c and C3H/HeN mice with distinct T. cruzi lineages resulted in greatly increased myocardial collagen content at a group level, indicative of fibrotic pathology. When mice were cured by benznidazole in the acute stage, the development of pathology was completely blocked. However, if treatment was delayed until the chronic stage, cardiac fibrosis was observed in the BALB/c model, although the protective effect was maintained...
Source: Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Antimicrob Agents Chemother Source Type: research