Author Spotlight: Real-Time Monitoring of Parasite Burden and Host Response

Our research group works in drug discovery for Chagas disease. We are searching for new and better drugs, and also trying to understand how the parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, can persist in the host and survive even after efficacious drug treatment without developing drug resistance. Chagas disease is a complex systemic infection that requires parasitological cure to be treated with success before the onset of the complicated disease.

The disease manifests in different forms in humans, but animal models cannot yet reproduce all important aspects of the disease. Ideally, new antiparasitic drugs for Chagas disease should promote parasitological cure, meaning the eradication of Trypanosoma cruzi parasites from the host. These protocols allows the realtime tracking of parasite burden in mice, and to differentiate compounds that only transiently suppress the parasitemia from those that can promote parasitological cure.

This protocol allows for noninvasive reduced animal use and monitoring of mice during both acute and chronic infection, and also enables for monitoring of visceral infection in real time. Using a similar protocol, we are developing new methods for understanding how drug therapy may benefit the host by preventing the onset and treating complicated Chagas disease. We will also continue to do research on the factors involving Trypanosoma cruzi evasion of drug treatment.