Borcosque-Avendaño Josefa, Quiroga Nicol, Cianferoni Franco, Díaz-Campusano Gabriel, Marcos José Luis, Botto-Mahan Carezza, Torres-Pérez Fernando, Bacigalupo Antonella, Campos-Soto Ricardo
Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad Viña del Mar, Viña del Mar 2572007, Chile.
Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 7800003, Chile.
Animals (Basel). 2025 Apr 26;15(9):1221. doi: 10.3390/ani15091221.
, the protozoan causative of Chagas disease, is primarily transmitted through blood-sucking insects and infects mammalian and some reptilian hosts. In Chile, insects of the genus are key vectors of in its wild transmission cycle. High prevalence and mixed infection of lineages have been reported in a population on Santa María Island in the Atacama Desert. However, no small mammals have been reported. The island's vertebrate community is dominated by the lizard and marine and scavenger birds. This study aimed to research blood samples of for the presence of DNA (kDNA and satDNA) using conventional PCR (cPCR) and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) and estimate parasitemia. Our findings reveal that 39.4% of 33 individuals were positive with both cPCR and qPCR, while when assessing infection with either technique, it rises up to 81.8%. These findings confirm that is a host of , suggesting its potential role as a key reservoir in the island's transmission cycle. This study provides new insights into the life cycle of in the coastal Atacama Desert, highlighting the importance of reptiles in the epidemiology of this parasite.
恰加斯病的原生动物病原体主要通过吸血昆虫传播，感染哺乳动物和一些爬行动物宿主。在智利，该属昆虫是其野生传播周期中的关键媒介。在阿塔卡马沙漠圣玛丽亚岛的一个种群中，已报告了该谱系的高流行率和混合感染情况。然而，尚未报告有小型哺乳动物。该岛的脊椎动物群落以蜥蜴以及海鸟和食腐鸟类为主。本研究旨在使用常规PCR（cPCR）和定量实时PCR（qPCR）研究该蜥蜴的血液样本中是否存在该病原体的DNA（kDNA和satDNA），并估计寄生虫血症。我们的研究结果显示，33只个体中有39.4%通过cPCR和qPCR检测均呈阳性，而当用任何一种技术评估感染情况时，这一比例上升至81.8%。这些发现证实该蜥蜴是该病原体的宿主，表明其在该岛传播周期中作为关键宿主的潜在作用。本研究为阿塔卡马沙漠沿海地区该病原体的生命周期提供了新见解，突出了爬行动物在这种寄生虫流行病学中的重要性。
