Behavioural alterations are independent of sickness behaviour in chronic experimental Chagas disease
Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz
; 110(8): 1042-1050, Dec. 2015. graf
Article
in English
| LILACS
| ID: lil-769830
Responsible library:
BR1.1
ABSTRACT
The existence of the nervous form of Chagas disease is a matter of discussion since Carlos Chagas described neurological disorders, learning and behavioural alterations in Trypanosoma cruzi-infected individuals. In most patients, the clinical manifestations of the acute phase, including neurological abnormalities, resolve spontaneously without apparent consequence in the chronic phase of infection. However, chronic Chagas disease patients have behavioural changes such as psychomotor alterations, attention and memory deficits, and depression. In the present study, we tested whether or not behavioural alterations are reproducible in experimental models. We show that C57BL/6 mice chronically infected with the Colombian strain of T. cruzi (150 days post-infection) exhibit behavioural changes as (i) depression in the tail suspension and forced swim tests, (ii) anxiety analysed by elevated plus maze and open field test sand and (iii) motor coordination in the rotarod test. These alterations are neither associated with neuromuscular disorders assessed by the grip strength test nor with sickness behaviour analysed by temperature variation sand weight loss. Therefore, chronically T. cruzi-infected mice replicate behavioural alterations (depression and anxiety) detected in Chagas disease patients opening an opportunity to study the interconnection and the physiopathology of these two biological processes in an infectious scenario.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Health context:
SDG3 - Health and Well-Being
/
Neglected Diseases
/
SDG3 - Target 3.4 Reduce premature mortality due to noncommunicable diseases
Health problem:
Target 3.3: End transmission of communicable diseases
/
Zoonoses
/
Mental Health and Behavioral Disorders
Database:
LILACS
Main subject:
Anxiety
/
Trypanosoma cruzi
/
Chagas Disease
/
Depression
/
Illness Behavior
/
Motor Activity
Limits:
Animals
Language:
English
Journal:
Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz
Journal subject:
Tropical Medicine
/
Parasitology
Year:
2015
Document type:
Article
/
Project document
Affiliation country:
Brazil
Institution/Affiliation country:
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz/BR