Project description:Trypanosoma cruzi is an organism highly resistant to ionizing radiation. Following a dose of 500 Gy of gamma radiation, the fragmented genomic DNA is gradually reconstructed and the pattern of chromosomal bands is restored in less than 48 hours. Cell growth arrests after irradiation but, while DNA is completely fragmented, RNA maintains its integrity. In this work we compared the transcriptional profiles of irradiated and non-irradiated epimastigotes at different time points after irradiation using microarray. In total, 273 genes were differentially expressed; from these, 160 were up-regulated and 113 down-regulated. We found that genes with predicted functions are the most prevalent in the down-regulated gene category. Translation and protein metabolic processes, as well as generation of precursor of metabolites and energy pathways were affected. In contrast, the up-regulated category was mainly composed of obsolete sequences (which included some genes of the kinetoplast DNA), genes coding for hypothetical proteins, and Retrotransposon Hot Spot genes. Finally, the tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase 1, a gene involved in double-strand DNA break repair process, was up-regulated. Our study demonstrated the peculiar response to ionizing radiation, raising questions about how this organism changes its gene expression to manage such a harmful stress. To evaluate the gamma radiation effect on T. cruzi epimastigote cells, two identical and independent experiments (biological replicates) were performed in triplicate. Each triplicate was composed of seven samples: cell culture growth control (not used in the microarray experiments), non-irradiated cells (used as reference sample in the microarray analysis), and five irradiated samples that had their RNA extracted immediately after irradiation (or i.a.i.), at 4, 24, 48, and 96 hours post-irradiation. Triplicates were pooled after the RNA extraction and before the purification/amplification steps. Each pool corresponding to one of the five time points was hybridized twice against the reference pool from each experiment, applying a reference time-course dye-swap design. Thus, four microarray slides for each time point were produced, two for each biological replicate, totaling 20 slides.

Project description:To investigate the early host response triggered by three different strains of Trypanosoma cruzi at a local infection site, changes in host gene expression were monitored in a murine intradermal infection model using Affymetrix oligonucleotide arrays. Robust induction of IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs) was observed in excised skin 24 hours post-infection where the level of ISG induction was parasite strain-dependent with the least virulent strain triggering a muted IFN response. Infection of mice immunodepleted of IFNÎ³-producing cells or infection of IFNÎ³-deficient mice had minimal impact on the IFN response generated in T. cruzi infected mice. In contrast, infection of mice lacking the type I IFN receptor demonstrated that type I IFNs are largely responsible for the IFN response generated at the site of infection. These data highlight type I IFNs as important components of the innate immune response to T. cruzi the site of inoculation and their role in shaping the early transcriptional response to this pathogen. We used microarrays to detail the local host transcriptional response to intradermal T. cruzi infection in WT mice and mice depleted of NK cells, or deficient in IFN-gamma or type I IFN responses. Additionally we compared the local host-transcriptional response generated to infection with 3 different strains of Trypanosoma cruzi (Y, Brazil, and G). Experiment Overall Design: Mice were infected by intradermal injection of 10^6 T. cruzi trypomastigotes in 100uL of saline split between 2 adjacent sites on the shaved side flank. Control mice were injected with an equal volume of saline. 24 hours post-injection approximately 75mm^2 of skin immediately surrounding the injection site was excised and RNA was isolated from the tissue. Balb/c mice were used for most experiments and IFN-gamma KO mice were on the Balb/c background. WT 129 mice were also used as IFNAR-/- mice were on the 129 background. In total 33 arrays were performed. 7 WT (Balb/c) control, 3 Y strain infected, 3 Brazil strain infected, 3 G strain infected, 2 IFN-gamma KO control, 2 IFN-gamma KO infected, 1 NK cell depleted control, 1 NK cell depleted infected, 3 WT (129) control, 3 WT (129) infected, 3 IFNAR KO control, 3 IFNAR KO infected

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Trypanosoma cruzi

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