title: Persistent infections in chronic Chagas' disease patients treated with anti-Trypanosoma cruzi nitroderivatives.
abstract: We used a molecular method and demonstrated that treatment of the chronic human Trypanosoma cruzi infections with nitroderivatives did not lead to parasitological cure. Seventeen treated and 17 untreated chronic Chagas' disease patients, with at least two out of three positive serologic assays for the infection, and 17 control subjects formed the study groups. PCR assays with nested sets of T. cruzi DNA primers monitored the efficacy of treatment. The amplification products were hybridized to their complementary internal sequences. Untreated and treated Chagas' disease patients yielded PCR amplification products with T. cruzi nuclear DNA primers. Competitive PCR was conducted to determine the quantity of parasites in the blood and revealed < 1 to 75 T. cruzi/ml in untreated (means 25.83+/-26.32) and < 1 to 36 T. cruzi/ml in treated (means 6.45+/-9.28) Chagas' disease patients. The difference between the means was not statistically significant. These findings reveal a need for precise definition of the role of treatment of chronic Chagas' disease patients with nitrofuran and nitroimidazole compounds.
authors.affiliation: Chagas' Disease Multidisciplinary Research Laboratory, University of Brasília, Federal District, Brazil.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Braga
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lauria-Pires
authors.forename: E R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Argañaraz
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Nascimento
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Teixeira
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D017931:DNA Primers; D006801:Humans; D006824:Hybridization, Genetic; D008297:Male; D009547:Nifurtimox / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009593:Nitroimidazoles / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014344:Trypanocidal Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D009593:Nitroimidazoles; D014344:Trypanocidal Agents; D009547:Nifurtimox; C009999:benzonidazole