Antibodies against neurons in chronic Chagas' disease.

Severe qualitative and quantitative alterations of the autonomic system inervating the heart and other organs have been demonstrated in experimental and natural Chagas' disease. These facts led us to search for the presence of antibody to neurons in 230 chagasic sera by an indirect immunofluorescence technique. Our results indicated that 83% of the chagasic patients presented IgG antibodies and 7% IgM antibodies to neurons. All control sera were negative. The demonstrated antibody to neurons presented cross-reaction against neurons of the central and peripheral nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic) and also against neurons of different species.

The causation and importance of nervous lesions in American trypanosomiasis.

The final cause of nerve-cell destruction during infections with Trypanosoma cruzi has not yet been definitively established. It seems that a cytotoxic or cytolytic substance contained within the leishmania forms is probably liberated after their disintegration and acts, mainly at a short distance and in high concentrations, on the ganglion cells in the vicinity of the ruptured pseudocysts. Recent studies with the electron microscope favour this hypothesis.The destruction of nerve cells in the central or perpipheral nervous systems or in both is responsible for the so-called "late manifestations" of Chagas' disease, which therefore represent "neuropathies" or Chagas' syndromes, i.e., sequelae of the acute phase of the T. cruci infection.