Abstract
Chagas disease, a parasitic infection caused by the protist Trypanosoma cruzi, affect the poorest populations, living in remote, rural areas and urban slums. Although this drug is effective against Chagas disease present a number of serious side effects. In residents of high Andean areas with megacolon it can lead to cardiomyopathies. The aim of this study was to investigate whether dietary supplementation with L-glutamine may alleviate some of these symptoms because of its previously observed anti-inflammatory properties. We studied two groups of T. cruzi-infected mice receiving treatment with nifurtimox. One group was fed the standard diet, while the other group’s diet was supplemented with Glutamine. We found that Glutamine supplementation increases body weight (p<0.001), decreases heart mass to body mass ratio (p<0.001), and decreases the number of amastigotes present in cardiac tissue. Additionally, histopathological analysis showed less heart tissue damage in the group that received Glutaminne in their diet. Therefore, our findings suggest that Glutamine supplementation improves nifurtimox treatment outcomes of T. cruzi infection.
Highlights
Chagas disease, or American trypanosomiasis, is a parasitic infection most prevalent in rural areas of tropical Latin America
Gln supplementation during NF treatment resulted in an increase in body mass, lower heart mass to body mass ratio and less cardiac tissue damage and relative enlargement
These results indicate that Gln dietary supplementation may diminish side effects of NF during the treatment of Chagas disease
Summary
American trypanosomiasis, is a parasitic infection most prevalent in rural areas of tropical Latin America. ROS-mediated damage is not completely eliminated in the host, which cause side effects including nausea, loss of appetite and body mass, and nervous system disorders including dizziness and amnesia (Gaspar et al, 2015) (Lidani et al, 2019) (Cabanillas, Bruchelt, Handgretinger, & Holzer, 2015). Given these side effects, it is desirable to search for treatments that may reduce or eliminate some or all of these symptoms without interfering with the effectiveness of NF. Ower objective was in the present work, to evaluate the effects of Gln dietary supplementation on the hearts and body mass of T. cruzi-infected mice treated with NF
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