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A vaccine for Chagas disease will be available in the near future
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Chagas disease is a tropical parasitic disease caused by protozoan parasites, usually bedbugs carry the infection, and can also be transmitted through blood transfusions, organ transplants, eating contaminated food, etc. The disease is almost asymptomatic at first, which is why Chagas disease is also known as the "silent killer." The medications used for this disease cause severe side effects, and to date, no vaccine has been created against this disease.
A team of researchers from the University of Texas School of Tropical Medicine said that a drug for Chagas disease with minimal side effects could soon be created.
During their joint work, the scientists managed to identify a molecule that “hides” the infection from the human immune system.
The results of the research were published in a tropical medicine journal published in the USA, the report said that the researchers studied the protein TC24, which is used by pathogens to become invisible to immune cells. As a result, the disease remains undetected for decades, and it is detected at late stages, when almost nothing can be done.
In 30% of cases of infection, Chagas disease becomes chronic, which causes myocardial diseases that are untreatable. The TC24 protein is an antigen that can cause non-specific activation of B cells, which in turn secrete antibodies to destroy pathogenic microorganisms.
As the lead scientist of the new scientific project, Dr. Eric L. Brown from the School of Public Health, noted, the next stage of the research team's work will be to modify the molecule, as a result of which the immune system will be able to stop the emergence and spread of infection.
In the world, despite all the achievements in medicine and science, many diseases still remain incurable, including parasitic infections transmitted by insects. For example, almost half of those infected die from Dengue fever (in the hemorrhagic form). But recently it became known that Mexican scientists have already received a patent for the production of a medicine for the deadly virus, which annually takes the lives of thousands of people.
According to some reports, the drug will be produced by a French pharmaceutical company, and doctors are already allowed to use the vaccine in places where the highest incidence rate is observed (Southeast Asia, Africa).
The pharmaceutical company noted that the drug had undergone all necessary checks and tests before going on sale, including clinical trials on rodents and humans. As a result of all the studies, the drug proved its effectiveness and safety.
Dengue fever affects about 400 million people annually, resulting in encephalitis, polyneuritis, and mumps. Primary infection with the virus causes the classic form, in which the prognosis is generally favorable, multiple infections with different strains of the virus cause the hemorrhagic form, in which the mortality rate is quite high.