Bloodstream Trypanosoma cruzi parasites from mice simultaneously express antigens that are markers of acute and chronic human Chagas disease.
Several recombinant Trypanosoma cruzi proteins previously isolated were used as antigens to analyse antibody specificities present in sera from human infections. Some parasite proteins such as SAPA (Shed Acute Phase Antigen) are antigenic early after infection. Others, like antigens 1 and 30, are antigenic mainly during the chronic phase of the infection. To understand why different proteins are antigenic at different periods of infection, specificities of antibodies present in the sera of infected mice were compared with the antigens expressed by parasites collected directly from blood. Parasites collected during the acute parasitaemia peak expressed not only antigen SAPA, but also antigens 1 and 30. However, only antibodies against SAPA were frequently observed during the early period and also in the chronic phase of murine infection. Long-lasting antibodies against SAPA were detected regardless of the mouse and parasite strains used. Furthermore, all 8 recombinant clones detected in a T. cruzi expression library with pooled sera from acutely infected mice were homologous to the SAPA gene. These results show that even though parasites from the acute parasitaemia peak in mice may express simultaneously several proteins known to be antigenic, only antibodies against SAPA were consistently detected.