TY - JOUR
T1 - From ancient to contemporary molecular eco-epidemiology of Chagas disease in the Americas
AU - Guhl, Felipe
AU - Auderheide, Arthur
AU - Ramírez, Juan David
N1 - Funding Information:
Financial support was provided by Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia and the Project Chagas EpiNet from The European Union Seventh Framework Programme, contract No. 223034.
PY - 2014/8
Y1 - 2014/8
N2 - One of the best-studied populations with regard to Chagas disease is from the coastal area of northern Chile at the foot of the western Andean slopes. The extremely arid climate here generates rapid, spontaneous desiccation of buried bodies, arresting the decay process. The absence of rainfall then preserves these dried bodies (mummies) for millennia. The aim of the present study was to perform the first molecular paleoepidemiological study on a set of 43 mummified human remains from the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile in order to elucidate the transmission dynamics and determinants of ancient genotypes, to try to unravel the natural history of the Trypanosoma cruzi taxon and Chagas disease. Interestingly, TcBat, a recently described Discrete Taxonomic Unit, emerges as the plausible ancestor of T. cruzi. The findings herein presented allow us to present a plausible model of T. cruzi transmission in pre-Columbian civilisations.
AB - One of the best-studied populations with regard to Chagas disease is from the coastal area of northern Chile at the foot of the western Andean slopes. The extremely arid climate here generates rapid, spontaneous desiccation of buried bodies, arresting the decay process. The absence of rainfall then preserves these dried bodies (mummies) for millennia. The aim of the present study was to perform the first molecular paleoepidemiological study on a set of 43 mummified human remains from the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile in order to elucidate the transmission dynamics and determinants of ancient genotypes, to try to unravel the natural history of the Trypanosoma cruzi taxon and Chagas disease. Interestingly, TcBat, a recently described Discrete Taxonomic Unit, emerges as the plausible ancestor of T. cruzi. The findings herein presented allow us to present a plausible model of T. cruzi transmission in pre-Columbian civilisations.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ijpara.2014.02.005
DO - 10.1016/j.ijpara.2014.02.005
M3 - Article
C2 - 24675555
AN - SCOPUS:84905044501
SN - 0020-7519
VL - 44
SP - 605
EP - 612
JO - International Journal for Parasitology
JF - International Journal for Parasitology
IS - 9
ER -
