Key result
Cellular therapy is being reviewed as a potential alternative treatment for patients with heart dysfunction due to Chagas' disease.
This review summarizes the potential applications and mechanisms of cellular therapy as an alternative treatment for chronic Chagasic cardiomyopathy.
Does not yet support routine cellular therapy use in Chagasic cardiomyopathy; leaves open need for randomized efficacy trials.
Nearly a century after its discovery, Chagas' disease, caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, remains a major health problem in Latin America. Although efforts in transmission control have contributed to a decrease in the number of new cases, approximately a third of chronic Chagasic individuals have or will develop the symptomatic forms of the disease, mainly cardiomyopathy. Chagas' disease is a progressively debilitating disease, which, at the final stages, there are no currently available treatments other than heart transplantation. In this scenario, cellular therapy is being tested as an alternative for millions of patients with heart dysfunction due to Chagas' disease. In this article, we review the studies of cellular therapy in animal models and in patients with Chagasic cardiomyopathy and the possible mechanisms by which cellular therapy may act in this disease.
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Soares et al. (2007) conducted a review in Chagas' disease with chronic cardiomyopathy. Cellular therapy was evaluated. Cellular therapy is being reviewed as a potential alternative treatment for patients with heart dysfunction due to Chagas' disease.
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