Anti-Trypanosoma cruzi antibody profiling in patients with Chagas disease treated with benznidazole assessed by genome phage display

Unraveling the role of miRNAs as biomarkers in Chagas cardiomyopathy: Insights into molecular pathophysiology

BACKGROUND

Chagas cardiomyopathy (ChCM) is a severe form of Chagas disease and a major cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The dysregulation of the immune response leads to cardiac remodeling and functional disruptions, resulting in life-threatening complications. Conventional diagnostic methods have limitations, and therapeutic response evaluation is challenging. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), important regulators of gene expression, show potential as biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis.

AIM

This review aims to summarize experimental findings on miRNA expression in ChCM and explore the potential of these miRNAs as biomarkers of Chagas disease.

METHODS

The search was conducted in the US National Library of Medicine MEDLINE/PubMed public database using the terms "Chagas cardiomyopathy" OR "Chagas disease" AND "microRNA" OR "miRNA" OR "miR." Additionally, bioinformatics analysis was performed to investigate miRNA-target interactions and explore enrichment pathways of gene ontology biological processes and molecular functions.

RESULTS

The miR-21, miR-146b, miR-146a, and miR-155 consistently exhibited up-regulation, whereas miR-145 was down-regulated in ChCM. These specific miRNAs have been linked to fibrosis, immune response, and inflammatory processes in heart tissue. Moreover, the findings from various studies indicate that these miRNAs have the potential as biomarkers for the disease and could be targeted in therapeutic strategies for ChCM.

CONCLUSION

In this review, we point out miR-21, miR-146b, miR-146a, miR-155, and miR-145-5p role in the complex mechanisms of ChCM. These miRNAs have been shown as potential biomarkers for precise diagnosis, reliable prognostic evaluation, and effective treatment strategies in the ChCM.

Schistosoma mansoni vaccine candidates identified by unbiased phage display screening in self-cured rhesus macaques

Schistosomiasis, a challenging neglected tropical disease, affects millions of people worldwide. Developing a prophylactic vaccine against Schistosoma mansoni has been hindered by the parasite's biological complexity. In this study, we utilized the innovative phage-display immunoprecipitation followed by a sequencing approach (PhIP-Seq) to screen the immune response of 10 infected rhesus macaques during self-cure and challenge-resistant phases, identifying vaccine candidates. Our high-throughput S. mansoni synthetic DNA phage-display library encoded 99.6% of 119,747 58-mer peptides, providing comprehensive coverage of the parasite's proteome. Library screening with rhesus macaques' antibodies, from the early phase of establishment of parasite infection, identified significantly enriched epitopes of parasite extracellular proteins known to be expressed in the digestive tract, shifting towards intracellular proteins during the late phase of parasite clearance. Immunization of mice with a selected pool of PhIP-Seq-enriched phage-displayed peptides from MEG proteins, cathepsins B, and asparaginyl endopeptidase significantly reduced worm burden in a vaccination assay. These findings enhance our understanding of parasite-host immune responses and provide promising prospects for developing an effective schistosomiasis vaccine.