Building a vaccine against chagas disease: SLU scientists identify potential new approach

Saint Louis University Center for Vaccine Development researchers have identified a potential new target for vaccines that activates a part of the immune system not previously known to be protective against Chagas disease, tuberculosis and AIDS, as well as other diseases. They found that Th17 cells, a special type of white blood cell that recognizes the presence of a foreign invader and helps other cells in the immune system to initiate an attack, protect against the Trypanosoma cruzi parasite. T. cruzi infects an estimated 11 million people worldwide, including 300,000 in the United States, and causes the chronic illness Chagas disease. Previously, scientists believed that Th17 cells only protected against extracellular pathogens that replicate independent of host cells, like gut bacteria. This finding indicates Th17 cells also can protect against intracellular pathogens, which reproduce inside a host cell, such as T. cruzi. “This work has the potential to guide break-through advances in our...