Abstract
Trypanosoma cruzi, a hemoflagellate parasite, is the etiological agent of Chagas disease that affects about 6–7 million people worldwide, mostly in Latin America. The parasite life cycle is complex and alternates between an invertebrate host—Triatominae vector—and a mammalian host. The parasite adaptation to the several microenvironments through which it transits is critical to success in establishing infection. Moreover, environmental cues also play an important role on the parasite development, and it can modulate the infection. In the present study, we discussed how the temperature oscillations and the nutritional state of the invertebrate host can affect the parasite development, multiplication, and the differentiation process of epimastigote forms into metacyclic trypomastigotes, called metacyclogenesis. The impact of oxidative imbalance and osmotic stresses on the parasite–vector relationship are also discussed.
Highlights
Trypanosoma cruzi, a hemoflagellate parasite belonging to the order Kinetoplastida and the family Trypanosomatidae, is the etiological agent of Chagas disease, known as American trypanosomiasis, and this potentially lethal disease is considered one of the most neglected human diseases by the WHO (World Health Organization, 2007)
Several studies have explored the relationship between environmental cues and their impact on the development and biology of a variety of triatomine species, the way in which parasites respond to these environmental changes has not been explored in depth, especially through in vitro experiments, providing little support for discussions of this subject
The purpose of this paper was precisely to collect the main reports in the literature that describe how external factors, such as temperature, the availability of nutritional contents, and consequent oxidative and osmotic stresses may alter the development of T. cruzi forms in the insect vector
Summary
Trypanosoma cruzi, a hemoflagellate parasite belonging to the order Kinetoplastida and the family Trypanosomatidae, is the etiological agent of Chagas disease, known as American trypanosomiasis, and this potentially lethal disease is considered one of the most neglected human diseases by the WHO (World Health Organization, 2007). Chagas disease is a key human vectorborne zoonotic disease that is endemic in 21 Latin American countries and the southern region of the United States (Bern et al, 2011; World Health Organization, 2014). In the United States, it is noteworthy that autochthonous human infections have been reported and that a considerable number of seropositive blood donors have been identified (Buhaya et al, 2015). Discontinuities in control initiatives launched in the 1990s have been responsible for a re-emergence of Chagas disease, which became a global economic and health issue (Flores-Ferrer et al, 2018)
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