Stage-Specific Polyamine Metabolism in Trypanosoma cruzi

Chagas' disease, or American trypanosomiasis is caused by the hemoflagellate Trypanosoma cruzi. It is endemic from the United States to Chile and Argentina. Recently, it has been recognized as an AIDS-defining opportunistic infection. While acute infections are often sub-clinical or inapparent in immunocompetent patients, thereafter the organism persists (probably for life) intracellularly in cardiac cells, the CNS, and smooth muscle tissue of hollow organs. It is now well documented that subsequent to immunosuppression, reactivation of dormant organisms in the CNS may cause meningoencephalitis, with fever, headache, seizures, and focal neurological signs.