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Chagas disease

A vaccine for Chagas disease

A compound developed in Brazil may be used in the future as a therapeutic vaccine against Chagas disease. The compound successfully protected 80% of mice that had been exposed to the parasite that causes the illness. The treated animals exhibited the same longevity as disease-free animals (PLOS Pathogens, January 24, 2015). Conversely, every one of the rodents included in a third group – infected, but left untreated – had died by the end of the 250-day experiment. The vaccine also reduced the parasite burden of infected mice to one-fifth of the amount found in untreated animals, in addition to decreasing the incidence of cardiac arrhythmia to 33%. Usually, all infected animals present the problem. Coordinated by Maurício Martins Rodrigues at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp), the researchers who participated in the study include a research group at the National Institute for Vaccine Science and Technology (INCTV), whose members include biophysicist Joseli Lannes-Vieira, principal author of the paper published in PLOS.

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