Persistent Parasites

Some problems can linger for a long time before their true impacts are felt. Such, it seems, is the case with the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes Chagas disease. Chagas disease comes in two forms – cardiac and digestive – but little is understood about how and why the digestive form takes hold. A new study has found that it develops as a result of long-term chronic infection and inflammation in the colon. Researchers used parasites engineered to glow under a microscope to track infections in mice over time. They were able to analyse rare infected cells deep in walls of the colon, and found damaged nerve cells in these infection hotspots over six months after initial infection. Compared to uninfected tissue (pictured, with nerve cell bodies in pink and the neural network in blue) those harbouring chronic infection showed clear signs of damage, pointing to a new focus for potential treatments.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from work by Archie A. Khan and colleagues
• Department of Infection Biology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS Pathogens, August 2021