Chagas parasite’s survival trick offers antimalarial-style target
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Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have identified a potential new target to prevent the spread of Chagas disease. The parasitic infection is transmitted through the bite of the kissing bug in Central and South America and, more recently, in the United States.
Chagas can harm the heart and digestive system years or even decades after initial infection, but it often goes undiagnosed. About 12,000 people each year die from Chagas-related complications, according to health officials.
“It’s called a silent killer,” UC Assistant Professor Noelia Lander said. “Many people don’t realize they have Chagas until complications from the infection kill them.”
Chagas is transmitted through a parasite, T. cruzi, that spends part of its life cycle in the guts of kissing bugs.
Messenger molecules split key tasks
Biologists found that the parasite relies on compartmentalizing functions related to its survival and infection within messenger molecules.
One relays messages to help cells adjust to sudden changes in environmental stress as it transitions between animal hosts. Another messenger molecule triggers the transformation of the invading parasite to resist the human immune system and reproduce. These compartmentalized functions could provide the opening researchers are looking for to interrupt the parasite’s deadly life cycle.
A brutal cycle across hosts
This is the same strategy used by drugs to attack Plasmodium, the parasite responsible for the world’s deadliest parasitic disease, malaria.
The study was published in the journal PLOS Pathogens.
The Chagas parasite spends part of its life in kissing bugs, which feed on the blood of mammals like mice, dogs and people. Kissing bugs typically defecate as they feed. Their feces contain the parasite, which enters a person’s body through the bite wound, eyes or mouth.
Other kissing bugs get infected with the parasite by drinking the blood of infected mammals in a gruesome cycle.
All the while, the parasite must contend with extreme environmental changes in temperature, acidity and nutrient availability to survive its epic transitions from insect to environment to animal host.
Tools to probe parasite survival
In her molecular parasitology lab at UC, Lander and her research team examined the ways T. cruzi survives in different hostile environments. They deployed technologies such as the gene-editing tool CRISPR/Cas9, immunofluorescence analysis and electron microscopy.
Doctoral student and lead author Milad Ahmed said the research project is meaningful because it could lead to successful health interventions.
“It’s one of the biggest motivations for doing research. It feels great to work on research that will help people lead a better life,” Ahmed said.
Publication details
Milad Ahmed et al, Cyclic AMP compartmentalization drives signal specificity to control vector colonization and mammalian host infection by American trypanosomes, PLOS Pathogens (2026). DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1013784
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