Open Access

ARTICLE

Trypanosoma rangeli: growth in mammalian cells in vitro and action of a repositioned drug (17-AAG) and a natural extract (Artemisia sp. essential oil)

Ana Laura CIMADOR^1,#, Emeli Luciana GALANTE^1,#, Lucila Ibel MUÑOZ^1,#, Patricia Silvia ROMANO^2,3, Antonella Denisse LOSINNO^1,2, María Cristina VANRELL^1,2,3

1 Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquimica, Universidad Juan Agustin Maza. Mendoza, Argentina
2 Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Mendoza, Argentina
3 Laboratorio de Biología de Trypanosoma cruzi y la célula hospedadora-Instituto de Histología y Embriología “Dr. Mario H. Burgos” (IHEM-CONICETUniversidad Nacional de Cuyo. Mendoza, Argentina
# These authors contributed equally to this work.

* Address correspondence to: María Cristina Vanrell,

BIOCELL 2019, 43(1), 13-20. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2019.07018

Abstract

Trypanosoma rangeli and T. cruzi are both parasitic unicellular species that infect humans. Unlike T. cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease, T. rangeli is an infective and non-pathogenic parasite for humans, but pathogenic for vectors from the Rhodnius genus. Because both species can coexist in different hosts and overlap their infective cycles but very little is known about the infection of T. rangeli in mammalian cells, we decided to characterize both the development of this parasite in cell culture and the effect of therapeutic agents with potential trypanocidal action on it. We found that T. rangeli exhibits a cycle of infection in Vero cells similar to that for T. cruzi and that the repurposed drug, 17-AAG, and the natural extract Artemisia sp. essential oil produce a toxic effect on epimastigotes showing a trypanocidal action from the fifth day of culture. Both treatments also affected the infection of trypomastigotes and reduced the capacity of replication of amastigotes of T. rangeli. Since T. cruzi / T. rangeli coinfection cases have been reported, the finding of drugs with potential activity against both species could be significant in the future. Furthermore, studies of susceptibility of both species to drugs could also help to know the different mechanisms of pathogenicity in humans displayed by T. cruzi that are absent in T. rangeli

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