Chagas disease is caused by infection with the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which might lead to a chronic disease state and drive to irreversible damage to the heart and/or digestive tract tissues. Endemic in 21 countries in the Americas, it is the neglected disease with a highest burden in the region. Current estimates point at ~6 million people infected, of which ~30% will progress onto the symptomatic tissue disruptive stage. There is no vaccine but there are two anti-parasitic drugs available: benznidazole and nifurtimox. However, their efficacy is variable at the chronic symptomatic stage and both have frequent adverse effects. Since there are no prognosis markers, drugs should be administered to all T. cruzi-infected individuals in the indeterminate and early symptomatic stages. Nowadays, there are no tests-of-cure either, which greatly undermines patients follow-up and the search of safer and more efficacious drugs. Therefore, the identification and validation of biomarkers of disease progression and/or treatment response on which to develop tests of prognosis and/or cure is a major research priority. Both parasite- and host-derived markers have been investigated. In the present manuscript we present an updated outlook of the latter.

中文翻译：

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美洲锥虫病预后的宿主生物标记物的最新技术和抗克鲁斯锥虫治疗反应的早期评估。

恰加斯病是由寄生虫克氏锥虫感染引起的，它可能导致慢性疾病，并导致对心脏和/或消化道组织的不可逆转的损害。它是美洲21个国家的地方病，是该地区负担最重的被忽视疾病。目前估计约有600万人受到感染，其中约30％会进入有症状的组织破坏阶段。没有疫苗，但有两种抗寄生虫药：苯并咪唑和硝呋替莫。然而，它们在慢性症状阶段的疗效是可变的，并且都具有频繁的不良反应。由于没有预后指标，因此应在不确定的症状早期和早期症状阶段对所有感染克氏锥虫的个体给药。如今也没有治愈测试，这极大地破坏了患者的随访以及对更安全，更有效药物的寻求。因此，鉴定和验证疾病进展和/或治疗反应的生物标志物以在其上进行预后和/或治愈的测试是主要的研究重点。寄生虫和宿主来源的标记物均已被研究。在本手稿中，我们将介绍后者的最新情况。