Trypanosoma cruzi : treatment with the iron chelator desferrioxamine reduces parasitemia and mortality in experimentally infected mice.

• Autor(a) principal: Arantes, Jerusa Marilda
• Data de Publicação: 2007
• Outros Autores: Pedrosa, Maria Lúcia, Martins, Helen Rodrigues, Veloso, Vanja Maria, Lana, Marta de, Bahia, Maria Terezinha, Tafuri, Washington Luiz, Carneiro, Cláudia Martins
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFOP
• Texto Completo: http://www.repositorio.ufop.br/handle/123456789/1406

The effects of prolonged treatment with iron chelator (desferrioxamine) on the development of infection in mice inoculated with Y Trypanosoma cruzi were determined. Infected/treated mice presented lower levels of parasitemia and reduced mortality rate compared with infected/non-treated animals. The five out of twenty infected/treated mice that survived the acute phase of infection showed negative hemoculture and positive ELISA in the acute and chronic phases and positive PCR in the acute phase: in the chronic phase, three of the animals presented negative PCR. The single surviving infected/non-treated animal exhibited positive hemoculture, PCR and ELISA in both phases of infection. Infected groups presented lower levels of iron in the liver compared with treated/non-infected or non-treated/ non-infected animals. The serum iron levels of the infected/non-treated group were higher on the 21st day post-infection in comparison with control and infected/treated groups. These results suggest that decrease of iron in the host leads to T. cruzi infection attenuation.