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On opportunist infections by Trypanosoma lewisi in humans and its differential diagnosis from T. cruzi and T. rangeli

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Abstract

Trypanosoma lewisi is a cosmopolitan species originally found in Rattus spp., being nonpathogenic, host-restricted, and transmitted by rat fleas. This species has been recorded as an opportunist blood parasite of human beings mainly in Asia, with a case in Africa. In Brazil, this species was recently recorded in captive monkeys. As T. lewisi can share vertebrate hosts both with Trypanosoma rangeli and Trypanosoma cruzi, some markers for the differential diagnosis of these species were examined and discussed herein. The identification of T. lewisi was based on morphological features of bloodstream stages at the initial phase of infection in mammals, isoenzyme electrophoresis at the MDH locus, and PCR products of kinetoplast DNA (kDNA) minicircles using the primers TC121/TC122.

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Acknowledgments

I am thankful to Barbara Neves dos Santos, Cristina Carvalhal, Sheila Medeiros dos Santos Pereira, and Tatiana da Silva Fonseca for collaborating in this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Coleção de Tripanossomatídeos, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Avenida Brasil 4365, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Maria Auxiliadora de Sousa

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  1. Maria Auxiliadora de Sousa
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Correspondence to Maria Auxiliadora de Sousa.

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de Sousa, M.A. On opportunist infections by Trypanosoma lewisi in humans and its differential diagnosis from T. cruzi and T. rangeli . Parasitol Res 113, 4471–4475 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-014-4132-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-014-4132-1

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