Behavioural alterations are independent of sickness behaviour in chronic experimental Chagas disease

The existence of the nervous form of Chagas disease is a matter of discussion since Carlos Chagas described neurological disorders, learning and behavioural alterations in Trypanosoma cruzi-infected individuals. In most patients, the clinical manifestations of the acute phase, including neurological...

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Main Authors: Glaucia Vilar-Pereira, Leonardo Alexandre de Souza Ruivo, Joseli Lannes-Vieira
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ) 2015-12-01
Series:Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0074-02762015000801042&lng=en&tlng=en
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author Glaucia Vilar-Pereira
Leonardo Alexandre de Souza Ruivo
Joseli Lannes-Vieira
author_facet Glaucia Vilar-Pereira
Leonardo Alexandre de Souza Ruivo
Joseli Lannes-Vieira
author_sort Glaucia Vilar-Pereira
collection DOAJ
description The existence of the nervous form of Chagas disease is a matter of discussion since Carlos Chagas described neurological disorders, learning and behavioural alterations in Trypanosoma cruzi-infected individuals. In most patients, the clinical manifestations of the acute phase, including neurological abnormalities, resolve spontaneously without apparent consequence in the chronic phase of infection. However, chronic Chagas disease patients have behavioural changes such as psychomotor alterations, attention and memory deficits, and depression. In the present study, we tested whether or not behavioural alterations are reproducible in experimental models. We show that C57BL/6 mice chronically infected with the Colombian strain of T. cruzi (150 days post-infection) exhibit behavioural changes as (i) depression in the tail suspension and forced swim tests, (ii) anxiety analysed by elevated plus maze and open field test sand and (iii) motor coordination in the rotarod test. These alterations are neither associated with neuromuscular disorders assessed by the grip strength test nor with sickness behaviour analysed by temperature variation sand weight loss. Therefore, chronically T. cruzi-infected mice replicate behavioural alterations (depression and anxiety) detected in Chagas disease patients opening an opportunity to study the interconnection and the physiopathology of these two biological processes in an infectious scenario.
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spelling doaj.art-da81b04f5862430190868c43bb83fa822023-09-02T16:28:28ZengFundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ)Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz1678-80602015-12-0111081042105010.1590/0074-02760150300S0074-02762015000801042Behavioural alterations are independent of sickness behaviour in chronic experimental Chagas diseaseGlaucia Vilar-PereiraLeonardo Alexandre de Souza RuivoJoseli Lannes-VieiraThe existence of the nervous form of Chagas disease is a matter of discussion since Carlos Chagas described neurological disorders, learning and behavioural alterations in Trypanosoma cruzi-infected individuals. In most patients, the clinical manifestations of the acute phase, including neurological abnormalities, resolve spontaneously without apparent consequence in the chronic phase of infection. However, chronic Chagas disease patients have behavioural changes such as psychomotor alterations, attention and memory deficits, and depression. In the present study, we tested whether or not behavioural alterations are reproducible in experimental models. We show that C57BL/6 mice chronically infected with the Colombian strain of T. cruzi (150 days post-infection) exhibit behavioural changes as (i) depression in the tail suspension and forced swim tests, (ii) anxiety analysed by elevated plus maze and open field test sand and (iii) motor coordination in the rotarod test. These alterations are neither associated with neuromuscular disorders assessed by the grip strength test nor with sickness behaviour analysed by temperature variation sand weight loss. Therefore, chronically T. cruzi-infected mice replicate behavioural alterations (depression and anxiety) detected in Chagas disease patients opening an opportunity to study the interconnection and the physiopathology of these two biological processes in an infectious scenario.http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0074-02762015000801042&lng=en&tlng=enChagas diseaseTrypanosoma cruzibehavioural alterationssickness behaviourdepressionanxiety
spellingShingle Glaucia Vilar-Pereira
Leonardo Alexandre de Souza Ruivo
Joseli Lannes-Vieira
Behavioural alterations are independent of sickness behaviour in chronic experimental Chagas disease
Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
Chagas disease
Trypanosoma cruzi
behavioural alterations
sickness behaviour
depression
anxiety
title Behavioural alterations are independent of sickness behaviour in chronic experimental Chagas disease
title_full Behavioural alterations are independent of sickness behaviour in chronic experimental Chagas disease
title_fullStr Behavioural alterations are independent of sickness behaviour in chronic experimental Chagas disease
title_full_unstemmed Behavioural alterations are independent of sickness behaviour in chronic experimental Chagas disease
title_short Behavioural alterations are independent of sickness behaviour in chronic experimental Chagas disease
title_sort behavioural alterations are independent of sickness behaviour in chronic experimental chagas disease
topic Chagas disease
Trypanosoma cruzi
behavioural alterations
sickness behaviour
depression
anxiety
url http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0074-02762015000801042&lng=en&tlng=en
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AT joselilannesvieira behaviouralalterationsareindependentofsicknessbehaviourinchronicexperimentalchagasdisease