Autoantibodies in Chagas' heart disease: possible markers of severe Chagas' heart complaint

We attempted to identify parasite antigens defined by sera from chagasic subjects with overt Chagas' heart disease. A lambda gt11 cloning strategy was designed that allowed the identification of two types of T. cruzi recombinant antigens: those reacting with sera from chagasic individuals with different clinical forms of the disease, recombinants JL7 and JL8, and those reacting predominantly with sera from Chagas' heart disease patients, such as recombinant JL5, JL9 and T. 31, a recombinant encoding the C-terminal region of the T. cruzi HSP70. JL7 - Our findings demonstrated that JL7 encoded a repetitive 68 amino acid sequence similar to the one present in the T. cruzi Miranda 76 antigen 1, to the FRA antigen and to the H-49 recombinant peptide. JL7 reacted with 68 out of 70 chronic chagasic sera from Argentina, tested in our laboratory.