Trypanosoma cruzi-Specific T-Cell Responses to Monitor Treatment Efficacy in Chronic Chagas Disease

Abstract

Chagas disease is the highest impact parasitic disease in Latin America. In recent years, the use of immune-related biomarkers to predict diagnostic and treatment efficacy or to monitor diseases has been considered a promising tool. Our group has worked for the past 20 years on the characterization of different immunological aspects of the T-cell responses to T. cruzi antigens. We have shown that monitoring of appropriate immunological responses can provide earlier and robust measures of treatment. The Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSPOT (ELISPOT) assays are powerful tools to evaluate antigen-specific immune responses at the single-cell level. Herein, we describe uses of the ELISPOT assay to determine the T. cruzi-specific T-cell populations in PBMCs from chronic chagasic subjects.