Purificación de una fracción de antígenos de tripomastigotes de Trypanosoma cruzi para el diagnóstico de la enfermedad de Chagas

trypanosoma cruzi excreted/secreted antigens (tesa) belong to the transialidase family, which are responsible for the transfer of exogenous sialic acid to accepting molecules at the trypomastigote surface. in the present study we purified several proteins from tesa antigens using affinity chromatography with sepharose b4-concanavalin a resin, with the purpose of using them for chagas？ disease diagnosis. the elution buffer contained a mixture of α-d-manopiranosid and α-d-glucopiranosid. a unidimensional electrophoresis in polyacrilamide gel to identify the purified bands, and an immunoelectrotransference test with a pool of sera from t. cruzi infected individuals to visualize the reactive bands were carried out. the colloidal coomassie blue stained gel allowed visualizing 3 bands of approximately 220, 170 and 20 kda. the immunoelectrotransference using a pool of positive sera with confirmed t. cruzi infection showed 5 immunogenic 220, 120, 50 and 32 kda bands, while a developing with diaminobenzidine showed 220, 120, 85, 50, 32 and 20 kda bands. the purified bands were not recognized in an immunoelectrotransference test when a pool of confirmed negative sera was used. these results suggest the potential of these tesa purified proteins for using them as a new tool for chagas？ disease diagnosis