title: Biomarkers of therapeutic responses in chronic Chagas disease: state of the art and future perspectives.
abstract: The definition of a biomarker provided by the World Health Organization is any substance, structure, or process that can be measured in the body, or its products and influence, or predict the incidence or outcome of disease. Currently, the lack of prognosis and progression markers for chronic Chagas disease has posed limitations for testing new drugs to treat this neglected disease. Several molecules and techniques to detect biomarkers in Trypanosoma cruzi-infected patients have been proposed to assess whether specific treatment with benznidazole or nifurtimox is effective. Isolated proteins or protein groups from different T. cruzi stages and parasite-derived glycoproteins and synthetic neoglycoconjugates have been demonstrated to be useful for this purpose, as have nucleic acid amplification techniques. The amplification of T. cruzi DNA using the real-time polymerase chain reaction method is the leading test for assessing responses to treatment in a short period of time. Biochemical biomarkers have been tested early after specific treatment. Cytokines and surface markers represent promising molecules for the characterisation of host cellular responses, but need to be further assessed.
authors.affiliation: Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Barcelona Centre for International Health Research, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Maria-Jesus
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Pinazo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology and Biomedicine López Neyra, National Research Council Institute, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Maria-Carmen
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Barcelona Centre for International Health Research, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bustamante
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Border Biomedical Research Center, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Igor Correia de
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Almeida
authors.affiliation: Institute of Parasitology and Biomedicine López Neyra, National Research Council Institute, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Manuel-Carlos
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Lopez
authors.affiliation: Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Barcelona Centre for International Health Research, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Joaquim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gascon
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006801:Humans; D009593:Nitroimidazoles / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014344:Trypanocidal Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D009593:Nitroimidazoles; D014344:Trypanocidal Agents; C009999:benzonidazole