[Contribution of the Trypanosoma cruzi Genome Project to the understanding of the pathogenesis of Chagas disease].
The Trypanosoma cruzi Genome Project (TcGP) is developed by a consortium of laboratories brought together by two international agencies, WHO/TDR and CYTED. The TcGP is an important tool for the study of Chagas disease. It provides researchers and clinicians with information about expressed parasite genes (see TcGP database, http:@gene.dbbm.fiocruz.br) and with an important number of genomic libraries and probes (ESTs). We show with four examples how the TcGP contributes to the understanding of the pathogenesis of this infection. 1) We demonstrate how to derive antigens from ESTs, an important feature regarding the generation of anti-cardiac receptor antibodies in chagasic patients. 2) We introduce concepts such as proteome vaccinome and pathonome that include all techniques needed to analyze quickly the growing amount of genomic information. 3) We show that the genomic regions that have been already sequenced give clues as to the plastic nature of the parasite nuclear genome. Finally, 4) we show how the genome sequences can be used to study the parasite DNA that is associated to the cardiac lesions.
Levin
M J
MJ
Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular, (INGEBI, FCEyN UBA-CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina. mlevin@proteus.dna.uba.ar
D000818:Animals; D000937:Antigen-Antibody Reactions / Q000276:immunology; D001483:Base Sequence; D002598:Chagas Cardiomyopathy / Q000276:immunology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D005819:Genetic Markers; D018503:Genome, Protozoan; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000235:genetics*
D005819:Genetic Markers