Guedes, Paulo Marcos da MattaSilva, Denis Dantas da2018-08-092018-08-092018-02-27SILVA, Denis Dantas da. Avaliação de marcadores moleculares em pacientes portadores da doença de Chagas. 2018. 67f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Biologia Parasitária) - Centro de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, 2018.https://repositorio.ufrn.br/jspui/handle/123456789/25720Digestive and cardiodigestive forms of Chagas' disease are observed in 2% to 15% of the patients, and the immunopathological mechanisms that induce development remain undefined. In addition, the determination of the esophagus and colon involvement in chagasic patients occurs through invasive and uncomfortable examinations, which in most cases are not performed. With this, the patient evolves to a more severe form of the pathology with worse prognosis. The objective of this work was to evaluate the involvement of the production of anti M2-pyruvate kinase autoantibodies (M2-PK) and the possible association with the development and / or diagnosis of the digestive form of Chagas' disease. The production of total IgG and isotypes (IgG1, IgG2, IgG3, IgG4) was quantified using the epimastigote antigen of Trypanosoma cruzi and the human M2-PK protein by the ELISA technique. The tests were performed with serum of patients with undetermined (n = 30), cardiac (n = 30), digestive (n = 15) and cardiodigestive (n = 15) Chagas disease, and correlated with the degree of dilatation of esophagus and the colon. Serum samples from uninfected individuals (n = 30) were used as controls. Chagas' patients with indeterminate, cardiac, digestive and cardiodigestive clinical forms presented higher production of anti-T cruzi total IgG antibodies and anti-M2-PK autoantibodies compared to uninfected individuals. Interestingly, patients with the digestive form of the disease had a higher production of anti-M2-PK IgG4 autoantibodies compared to patients with the indeterminate, cardiac and healthy control groups. Moreover, a positive correlation was observed between esophageal and colon size with the production of anti M2-PK IgG4 autoantibodies. The results indicate that the detection of anti M2-PK IgG4 autoantibodies is a promising noninvasive method for the diagnosis of digestive system involvement in Chagas' disease and the presence may still be involved in the development of the digestive tract of the disease.Acesso AbertoDoença de ChagasTrypanosoma cruziFormas clínicasM2-PKAutoanticorposDiagnósticomasterThesisCNPQ::CIENCIAS BIOLOGICAS: BIOLOGIA PARASITÁRIA