title: Chagasic patients are able to respond against a viral antigen from influenza virus.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas' disease, is an obligate intracellular parasite which induces a CD8+ T cell immune response with secretion of cytokines and release of cytotoxic granules. Although an immune-suppressive effect of T. cruzi on the acute phase of the disease has been described, little is known about the capacity of CD8+ T cell from chronic chagasic patients to respond to a non-T. cruzi microbial antigen.
  
  
  METHODS
  In the present paper, the frequency, phenotype and the functional activity of the CD8+ T cells specific from Flu-MP*, an influenza virus epitope, were determined in 13 chagasic patients and 5 healthy donors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results show that Flu-MP* peptide specific CD8+ T cells were found with similar frequencies in both groups. In addition, Flu-MP* specific CD8+ T cells were distributed in the early or intermediate/late differentiation stages without showing enrichment of a specific sub-population. The mentioned Flu-MP* specific CD8+ T cells from chagasic patients were predominately TEM (CCR7- CD62L-), producing IL-2, IFNγ, CD107a/b and perforin, and did not present significant differences when compared with those from healthy donors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results support the hypothesis that there is no CD8+ T cell nonspecific immune-suppression during chronic Chagas disease infection. Nonetheless, other viral antigens must be studied in order to confirm our findings.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Parasitología Molecular, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lasso
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mesa
authors.forename: Natalia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bolaños
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cuéllar
authors.forename: Fanny
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guzmán
authors.forename: Zulma
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cucunuba
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rosas
authors.forename: Víctor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Velasco
authors.forename: Maria C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Manuel Carlos
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: López
authors.forename: John Mario
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: González
authors.forename: Concepción Judith
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Puerta
mesh_terms: D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000276:immunology*; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000378:metabolism; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000378:metabolism; D052118:Lysosomal-Associated Membrane Protein 1 / Q000032:analysis; D052119:Lysosomal-Associated Membrane Protein 2 / Q000032:analysis; D009975:Orthomyxoviridae / Q000276:immunology*; D054353:Perforin / Q000378:metabolism; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology*; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000472:pathogenicity*
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral; D007376:Interleukin-2; D052118:Lysosomal-Associated Membrane Protein 1; D052119:Lysosomal-Associated Membrane Protein 2; D054353:Perforin; D007371:Interferon-gamma