The role of cholinesterases in chagas disease

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) hydrolyze acetylcholine (ACh) in neural synaptic clefts and are primarily found in erythrocytes and blood plasma, respectively. Besides inactivating ACh, cholinesterases may play a non-classical role in inflammation and in immune response. In a previous study, we reported that BChE levels were decreased in chronic Chagas disease patients presenting the mega syndromes. In this series, we reported that: i) the activity of AChE did not differ between patients and controls, irrespective of the presence or not of the 1057C > A ACHE polymorphism, and ii) the increased BChE levels modestly influenced the AChE activity in Chagas disease.