RESUMO
Immune complexes (ICs) are the direct and real-time products of humoral immune responses. The identification of constituent foreign or autoantigens within ICs might bring new insights into the pathology of infectious diseases. We applied immune complexome analysis of plasma to the study of Chagas disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. Twenty seropositive plasma samples including cardiac and/or megacolon determinate patients (n = 11) and indeterminate (n = 9) were analysed along with 10 seronegative individuals to characterize the antigens bound to circulating ICs. We identified 39 T. cruzi antigens and 114 human autoantigens specific to patients with Chagas. Among those antigens, two T. cruzi antigens (surface protease GP63, glucose-6-isomerase) and six human autoantigens (CD180 antigen, ceruloplasmin, fibrinogen beta chain, fibrinogen beta chain isoform 2 preprotein, isoform gamma-A of fibrinogen γ-chain, serum paraoxonase) were detected in more than 50% of the patients tested. Human isoform short of complement factor H-related protein 2 and trans-sialidase of T. cruzi were more frequently found in the indeterminate (5/9 for both) compared with in the determinate Chagas (0/11, P = 0·046 for human, 1/11, P = 0·0498 for T. cruzi). The immune complexome could illustrate the difference of immune status between clinical forms of chronic Chagas disease.