Semisolid liver infusion tryptose supplemented with human urine allows growth and isolation of Trypanosoma cruzi and Trypanosoma rangeli clonal lineages

Cultivation of monoxenous trypanosomatids: A minireview

Trypanosomatids are obligatory parasites, some of which are responsible for important human and animal diseases, but the vast majority of trypanosomatids are restricted to invertebrate hosts. Isolation and in vitro cultivation of trypanosomatids from insect hosts enable their description, characterization, and subsequently genetic and genomic studies. However, exact nutritional requirements are still unknown for most trypanosomatids and thus very few defined media are available. This mini review provides information about the role of different ingredients, recommendations and advice on essential supplements and important physicochemical parameters of culture media with the aim of facilitating first attempts to cultivate insect-infesting trypanosomatids, with a focus on monoxenous trypanosomatids.

Liver infusion tryptose (LIT): the best choice for growth, viability, and infectivity of Leishmania infantum parasites

Leishmania spp. parasites have a complex biological cycle presenting basically two different morphological stages, the amastigote and promastigote forms. In vitro cultivation allows a more complete study of the biological aspects of these parasites, indicating better conditions for infection, immunoassay tests, drug evaluations, and vaccines. Thus, we evaluated the three most used culture media for Leishmania spp., Grace’s insect cell culture medium (Grace’s), liver infusion tryptose (LIT), and Schneider’s insect medium (Schneider’s), without supplementation or supplemented with fetal calf serum (FCS) and bovine serum albumin (Albumin) to evaluate the growth, viability, and infectivity of the L. infantum promastigotes. It was observed that promastigote forms have a better growth in LIT and Schneider’s with or without FCS when compared to that in Grace’s. The supplementation with albumin promoted greater viability of the parasites independent of the medium. For in vitro infection of J774.A1 macrophages using light microscopy and flow cytometry analyses, FCS-supplemented LIT and Grace’s promoted higher percentage of infected macrophages and parasite load compared with Schneider’s media. Taken together, our results demonstrated that the supplementation of LIT culture medium with FCS is the most suitable strategy to cultivate Leishmania infantum parasites enabling the maintenance of growth and infective parasites for research uses.

A systematic review of the diagnostic aspects and use of Trypanosoma rangeli as an immunogen for Trypanosoma cruzi infection

INTRODUCTION:

Trypanosoma rangeli is a protozoan that infects several domestic and wild mammals and shows significant distribution in Latin American countries. T. rangeli infection is similar to Chagas disease, both in diagnostic and prophylactic terms. Thus, the objective of this work was to review the diagnostic aspects and use of T. rangeli as an immunogen for Trypanosoma cruzi infection.

METHODS:

For this elaboration, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were adopted with descriptors derived from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) platform in the PubMed/MEDLINE and SciELO databases. The inclusion criteria were defined as original articles on "Trypanosoma rangeli" and diagnostic aspects of T. rangeli infection in humans and/or research on the possible vaccines developed using T. rangeli strains for T. cruzi infection.

RESULTS:

After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 18 articles were procured, of which 4 addressed research on the possible vaccines developed using T. rangeli for T. cruzi infection in vertebrates and the remaining 14 predominantly dealt with the diagnostic aspects of T. rangeli infection in humans.

CONCLUSIONS:

In this study, we formulated a compilation of the essential literature on this subject, emphasizing the need for more accurate and accessible techniques for the differential diagnosis of infections caused by both protozoa, and underscored several prospects in the search for a vaccine for Chagas disease.