Characterization of Trypanosoma rangeli strains isolated in Central and South America: An overview

Trypanosoma rangeli is a hemoflagelate parasite that infects domestic and s ylvatic animals, as well as man, ill Central and South America. T. rangeli has all overlapping distribution with T. cruzi, the etiological agent of Ch agas disease, sharing sever al animal reservoirs and triatomine vectors. We have isolated T. rangeli strains in the State of Santa Catarina, in southe rn Brazil, which dramatically, increased the distribution al ea of this par asite. This brief review summarizes several studies comparing T. rangeli st rains isolated in Santa Catarina with others isolated in Colombia, Honduras and Venezuela. The different methods used include indirect immunofluoresce nce and western blot assays lectin agglutination, isoenzyme electrophoresis and random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis, triatomine susceptibility, in vitro cell infection assays, and mini-exon gene analysis.