Protection against Trypanosoma cruzi using fecal forms of homologous parasites from juvenilized or normal vectors of Chagas' disease and by passive transfer of immune blood
Perlowagora-Szumlewicz, A.
Revista Brasileira de Malariologia E Doencas Tropicais. Publicacoes Avulsas 29: 5-21
1977
ISSN/ISBN: 0034-7256 PMID: 120952 Document Number: 118915
Thirty-two mice were exposed on the skin to a suspension of faeces containing Trypanosoma cruzi from Panstrongylus megistus which had been treated with juvenile hormone. 32 mice were similarly exposed to trypanosomes in the faeces of normal bugs. In each case there was a delay before parasites appeared (compared with infection produced by inoculation of blood forms), parasitaemia was low and transient, and many (66 to 71%) of the mice survived. The trypansosomes from juvenilized bugs were similar in virulence to those from normal bugs and their immunogenic properties were not impaired (as was shown by the resistance of surviving mice to subsequent challenge with blood trypomastigotes). The serum of immune mice (collected after infection from trypanosomes of both juvenilized or normal bugs) conferred considerable but varying protection against trypanosome challenge; thus when mice were inoculated with a lethal dose of blood trypanosomes plus immune serum, 57 to 78% of them survived for 12 months.