Acute Chagas disease outbreak associated with oral transmission.

Seven individuals living in a town in the Southwest of Bahia developed sudden signs of cardiac and systemic impairment, with lethality of 28.6%. Serological tests were positive at least in one test in the five patients examined. Forty percent of the Triatoma sordida mynphs found inside or around Trypanosoma cruzi were found by blood culturig in there out five cases the homes of these cases were positive for Trypanosoma cruzi. Transmission probably occurred through consumption of water contaminated with triatomine feces. These findings emphasize the necessity to evaluation the importance of vectors like Triatoma sordida in maintaining the endemicity of this disease.

Acute Chagas disease outbreak associated with oral transmission / Surto de doença de Chagas aguda associada à transmissão oral

Seven individuals living in a town in the Southwest of Bahia developed sudden signs of cardiac and systemic impairment, with lethality of 28.6 percent. Serological tests were positive at least in one test in the five patients examined. Forty percent of the Triatoma sordida mynphs found inside or around Trypanosoma cruzi were found by blood culturig in there out five cases the homes of these cases were positive for Trypanosoma cruzi. Transmission probably occurred through consumption of water contaminated with triatomine feces. These findings emphasize the necessity to evaluation the importance of vectors like Triatoma sordida in maintaining the endemicity of this disease.

Sete indivíduos que viviam em uma cidade do sudoeste da Bahia desenvolveram sinais súbitos de envolvimento cardíaco e sistêmico com letalidade de 28,6 por cento Trypanosoma cruzi foi isolado por hemocultura em três de cinco casos examinados. Testes sorológicos foram positivos em mais de um teste nos cinco pacientes, que os realizaram. Qinquenta por cento dos Triatoma sordida encontrados na residência ou no peridomicilio dos casos estavam positivos para Trypanosoma cruzi. A transmissão provavelmente foi devido à ingestão de água contaminada por fezes de triatomíneos. Estes achados enfatizam a necessidade de se avaliar a importância de vetores como Triatoma sordida na manutenção da endemicidade da doença.

Quinoline compounds decrease in vitro spontaneous proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) type-1-infected patients.

In vitro spontaneous proliferation is the immunological hallmark of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from HTLV-1-infected individuals. Quinoline compounds down regulate in vitro cell proliferation of HTLV-1 transformed cell lines. In the present study we assessed the capacity of quinolines to inhibit spontaneous cell proliferation of PBMC from HTLV-1-infected individuals. Twenty-two quinolines were evaluated. Toxicity was first assessed on PBMC from healthy donors by using both the Trypan blue technique and Tetrazolium Salt (XTT) method and then the antiproliferative effect was measured by a classic lymphoproliferative assay on PBMC from three HTLV-1-infected individuals, in the presence of decreasing concentrations of quinolines (from 100microM to 0.8microM), after 5 days of culture. We found that 14 out of 22 compounds were non-toxic to PBMC from uninfected individuals at 100, 50 and 10microM. Four compounds presented a capacity to inhibit more than 80% of the spontaneous proliferation: 7 at 25microM and 10, 20 and 23 at 100microM. Our results indicate that some quinolines block spontaneous proliferation of PBMC from HTLV-1-infected individuals.

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from individuals infected with human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 have a reduced capacity to respond to recall antigens.

Evidence indicates that human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) infection leads to chronic immunosuppression and a greater susceptibility to infectious diseases. Spontaneous in vitro proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) is an important immunological feature of HTLV-1-infected individuals. However, the association between spontaneous proliferation and immunosuppression is not clear. In this study, we evaluated the cellular immune responses of PBMC from 58 asymptomatic HTLV-1-infected individuals with PBMC showing or not showing spontaneous proliferation. Individuals with PBMC that spontaneously proliferated had increased proportions of CD4 T cells expressing CD45RO and dramatically reduced responses to recall antigens. In addition, frequencies of positive responses to recall antigens were also decreased in HTLV-infected individuals without spontaneous proliferation of PBMC. There was a polyclonal expansion of multiple T-cell receptor Vbeta families of CD4+ T lymphocytes in patients with spontaneous proliferation. We observed that HTLV-1 induced an immunosuppression characterized by a decrease in the stimulation index to a recall antigen, even in individuals who did not present spontaneous proliferation. On the other hand, only patients with PBMC presenting spontaneous proliferation showed polyclonal activation and increased proportion of CD4 T cells expressing CD45RO.

Yeast-derived human immunodeficiency virus type 1 p55(gag) virus-like particles activate dendritic cells (DCs) and induce perforin expression in Gag-specific CD8(+) T cells by cross-presentation of DCs.

To evaluate the immunogenicity of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 p55(gag) virus-like particles (VLPs) released by budding from yeast spheroplasts, we have analyzed the effects of yeast VLPs on monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs). Yeast VLPs were efficiently incorporated into DCs via both macropinocytosis and endocytosis mediated by mannose-recognizing receptors, but not the mannose receptor. The uptake of yeast VLPs induced DC maturation and enhanced cytokine production, notably, interleukin-12 p70. We showed that yeast membrane components may contribute to DC maturation partly through Toll-like receptor 2 signaling. Thus, Gag particles encapsulated by yeast membrane may have an advantage in stimulating Gag-specific immune responses. We found that yeast VLPs, but not the control yeast membrane fraction, were able to activate both CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells of HIV-infected individuals. We tested the effect of cross-presentation of VLP by DCs in two subjects recruited into a long-term nonprogressor-slow progressor cohort. When yeast VLP-loaded DCs of these patients were cocultured with peripheral blood mononuclear cells for 7 days, approximately one-third of the Gag-specific CD8(+) T cells were activated and became perforin positive. However, some of the Gag-specific CD8(+) T cells appeared to be lost during in vitro culture, especially in a patient with a high virus load. Our results suggest that DCs loaded with yeast VLPs can activate Gag-specific memory CD8(+) T cells to become effector cells in chronically HIV-infected individuals, but there still remain unresponsive Gag-specific T-cell populations in these patients.