Rapamycin Treatment Reduces Acute Myocarditis Induced by Trypanosoma cruzi Infection.

ABSTRACT: Chagas disease affects millions of people mainly in Latin America and is a protozoan illness caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Chagasic cardiomyopathy is the leading cause of mortality of infected patients, due to compromised electrical and mechanical cardiac function induced by tissue remodeling, especially fibrosis, and lymphocytic infiltration. Some cellular biochemical pathways can be protective to the heart, and we tested if the in vivo activation of the autophagic machinery by rapamycin could reduce parasite-induced myocarditis. Regarding the expression of LC3, an autophagy marker, we observed its upregulation in the cardiac tissue of infected untreated mice. However, after rapamycin treatment, an autophagy inducer, infected mice showed reduced electrical cardiac dysfunctions

SUBMITTER: Duque TLA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7383291 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature