Resumo

FERRER, Elizabeth. Molecular techniques for the diagnosis of chagas disease. Saber [online]. 2015, vol.27, n.3, pp.359-371. ISSN 2343-6468.

Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and includes an acute phase followed by a chronic phase, with low parasitemia and clinical manifestations range from no symptoms to severe heart disease. Diagnosis has limitations due to the low sensitivity of the parasitological techniques and the low specificity of immunological ones. Molecular techniques, especially PCR, that detects specific DNA sequences of the parasite, is an alternative. Several targets have been described for amplification, the most used because of its high sensitivity and specificity are the PCR that amplified satellite DNA and minicircle kinetoplast DNA of T. cruzi. Although the PCR technique also has some limitations in terms of cost, infrastructure needed and sensitivity in the chronic phase of the disease, has many advantages, especially in acute cases, congenital Chagas, in immunodeficiencies and are appropriate in the evaluation and monitoring of treatment. More advanced variants have been developed, such as; real time PCR, isothermal amplification and detection of PCR products by chromatographic strips. It would be appropriate to combine the use of parasitological, immunological and molecular techniques according to the suspected phase of the disease and patient characteristics. In Venezuela, the molecular techniques for diagnosis of Chagas disease are only used in research laboratories. It would be advisable to incorporate the molecular diagnostic tests to the group of techniques.for diagnosis of Chagas disease in the country.

Palavras-chave : Trypanosoma cruzi; PCR; DNA.

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