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Vimentin and Anti Vimentin Antibodies in Chagas' Disease
Marilda Savoia Nascimento1, Anna Maria Simonsen Stolf1, Heitor Franco de Andrade Junior1
1Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, SP - Brazil.
Insights
Anti-vimentin antibodies indicate active Chagas disease (American Trypanosomiasis) and potential cardiac damage. Their presence may guide treatment decisions in patients with T. cruzi infection.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Cell Biology
- Parasitology
Background:
- Vimentin, a key intermediate filament protein, is involved in cellular structure and can be targeted by antibodies in autoimmune conditions.
- Anti-vimentin antibodies are implicated in autoimmune cardiac diseases like rheumatic fever.
- This study investigates vimentin's role in the immune response to Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine vimentin distribution in host cells infected with T. cruzi.
- To assess the presence and significance of anti-vimentin antibodies in patients with Chagas disease.
- To explore vimentin's involvement in the humoral immune response during American Trypanosomiasis.
Main Methods:
- Standardized an indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFI) for subcellular vimentin expression in host cells and parasites.
- Employed ELISA to quantify anti-vimentin antibodies in sera from Chagas disease patients.
- Analyzed vimentin distribution in LLC-MK2 cells infected with T. cruzi.
Main Results:
- T. cruzi-infected cells showed increased vimentin expression, particularly in the cytoplasm outside the parasitophorous vacuole.
- Anti-vimentin antibodies were detected in a majority of American Trypanosomiasis patient sera.
- Antibody prevalence was significantly higher in acute cases (76.9%) and cardiac disease patients (87.9%) compared to asymptomatic individuals (25%).
Conclusions:
- Anti-vimentin antibodies serve as a potential marker for active Chagas disease.
- Elevated anti-vimentin antibody levels may warrant consideration for drug therapy in chronic Chagas disease.
- These antibodies could indicate cardiac muscle cell damage in patients with American Trypanosomiasis.
Background:
Vimentin is a main structural protein of the cell, a component of intermediate cell filaments and immersed in cytoplasm. Vimentin is mimicked by some bacterial proteins and anti-vimentin antibodies occur in autoimmune cardiac disease, as rheumatic fever. In this work we studied vimentin distribution on LLC-MK2 cells infected with T. cruzi and anti-vimentin antibodies in sera from several clinical pictures of Chagas' disease or American Trypanosomiasis, in order to elucidate any vimentin involvement in the humoral response of this pathology.
Objective:
We standardized an indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFI) to determine sub cellular expression in either parasites and host cells, and ELISA to evaluate anti-vimentin antibodies in sera fron chagasic patients.
Methods:
We analyzed the distribution of vimentin in culture cells using indirect fluorescent assays, using as external controls anti-T. cruzi sera, derived from chronic infected patients for identification of the parasites in the same model. After infection and growth of T.cruzi amastigotes, those cells express larger amounts of vimentin, with heavy staining of cytoplasm outside the parasitophorous vacuole and some particle shadowing patterns, suggesting that vimentin are associated with cell cytoplasm. Anti-vimentin antibodies were present in most American trypanosomiasis samples, but notably, they are much more present in acute (76, 9%) or clinical defined syndromes, especially cardiac disease (87, 9%). Paradoxically, they were relatively infrequent in asymptomatic (25%) infected patients, which had a clearly positive serological reaction to parasite antigens, but had low frequency of anti-vimentin antibodies, similar to controls (2,5%).
Conclusion:
Our current data revealed that anti-vimentin antibodies induced during T. cruzi infection could be a marker of active disease in the host and its levels could also justify drug therapy in American Trypanosomiasis chronic infection, as a large group of asymptomatic patients would be submitted to treatment with frequent adverse reactions of the available drugs. Anti-vimentin antibodies could be a marker of cardiac muscle cell damage, appearing in American Trypanosomiasis patients during active muscle cell damage.