title: Direct analysis of genetic variability in Trypanosoma cruzi populations from tissues of Colombian chagasic patients.
abstract: The clinical symptoms of Chagas disease are highly variable and are correlated with geographical distribution and parasite genetic group. Trypanosoma cruzi group I is associated with chagasic cardiomyopathy in Colombia and other countries in northern South America. However, in southern South America, T cruzi group II predominates and is associated with cardiomyopathy and digestive forms of the disease. The aim of this work was to determine the correlation between the genetic profiles of T cruzi groups circulating in the biological cycle and those present in tissues from patients with Chagas disease. We genotyped T cruzi in 10 heart tissue samples from patients with cardiomyopathy from a highly endemic area of Colombia. The genotyping was performed using nuclear and mitochondrial genes and low-stringency single-specific primer polymerase chain reaction. As expected, the predominant genetic group was T cruzi group I; however, we also detected T cruzi group II. Microsatellite analyses suggested a predominance of monoclonal populations, and sequence alignments showed similarities with Colombian strains. In addition, kinetoplast DNA signatures obtained by low-stringency single-specific primer polymerase chain reaction allowed us to group strains into the 2 genetic groups. Thus, we conclude that both T cruzi genetic groups are producing severe cases of Chagas disease in Colombia. We did not observe any correlation between low-stringency single-specific primer polymerase chain reaction profiles, histopathologic findings, clinical forms, and severity of Chagas disease.
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Inmunología y Epidemiología Molecular, GIEM, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Bucaramanga-Colombia.
authors.forename: German
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zafra
authors.forename: Julio Cesar
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Mantilla
authors.forename: Jesús
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jácome
authors.forename: Andréa Mara
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Macedo
authors.forename: Clara Isabel
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: González
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D002598:Chagas Cardiomyopathy / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000473:pathology; D003105:Colombia; D016054:DNA, Protozoan / Q000032:analysis*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D006321:Heart / Q000469:parasitology; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D006801:Humans; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D016054:DNA, Protozoan