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SUMMARY:The yin-yang of the immune response:  keeping the balance to decre
 ase the burden of Chagas heart disease - Prof. Walderez O. Dutra\, Federal
  University of Minas Gerais\, Brazil and Wellcome Trust-Cambridge Center f
 or Global Health Research
DTSTART:20180924T161500Z
DTEND:20180924T174500Z
UID:TALK110068@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Watu
DESCRIPTION:Chagas disease is a neglected tropical disease in Latin Americ
 a caused by infection with the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Currently\, 6 m
 illion people have Chagas disease and 70 million are at risk of infection.
  If untreated\, it is a chronic\, lifelong infection. While most infection
 s are ‘silent’ and completely asymptomatic\, some 30% progress to seve
 re heart inflammation causing major disability\, and thousands of deaths a
 nnually. Chagas heart disease is a massive economic burden (over $1 billio
 n/year) on poor underprivileged countries. T. cruzi is mainly transmitted 
 to humans by the contaminated faeces of blood-sucking bugs. It is believed
  that Charles Darwin contracted Chagas disease in South America and that h
 is heart attack and death may have been due to Chagas cardiomyopathy. Tran
 smission by transfusion with contaminated blood also occurs. Transfusion t
 ransmission is spreading the disease globally. There is no vaccine for Cha
 gas. Treatment is more effective early in infections\, which often go unde
 tected. Thus\, novel prevention strategies and treatments are needed to mi
 nimize the impact of this devastating disease. \n\nParasites have evolved 
 and adapted to their hosts over millions of years\, developing strategies 
 to evade host immune defenses. In the case of Trypanosoma cruzi and the hu
 man host\, this adaptation is clearly represented by the fact that most pe
 ople have no symptoms during this lifelong chronic infection. However\, th
 is finely balanced relationship between parasite and host immune system ma
 y breakdown\, leading to disease. For twenty-years my Brazilian laboratory
  has studied the breakdown of this balanced parasite-host relationship\, a
 nd how to prevent or restore it. We believe the imbalance\, and therefore 
 disease\, is caused by development of an “unfavorable” anti-parasite r
 esponse\, and we have identified mechanisms that define unfavorable vs. fa
 vorable responses. In this seminar\, I will present some of our finding. F
 or example\, we discovered that some people are genetically predisposed to
  Chagas heart disease. This is important as it allows asymptomatic individ
 uals at risk of heart disease to be identified for closer clinical monitor
 ing. We also recently identified immune cells and networks characteristic 
 of Chagas heart disease\, and showed that manipulation of these can revert
  a response from unfavorable to favorable. This could prevent development 
 of Chagas disease in those ‘at risk’\, and may also guide novel treatm
 ents for other heart diseases that share common characteristics with Chaga
 s heart disease.\n\nFor more information and to register\, please click he
 re https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/global-health-seminar-tickets-5006971687
 1
LOCATION:Wine Room\, King’s College\, Cambridge\, CB2 1ST.
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