Differential cardiomyocyte transcriptomic remodeling during in vitro Trypanosoma cruzi infection using laboratory strains provides implications on pathogenic host responses

• Published in: Tropical Medicine and Health
• Main Authors: Katherine-Sofia Candray-Medina, Yu Nakagama, Masamichi Ito, Shun Nakagama, Evariste Tshibangu-Kabamba, Norihiko Takeda, Yuki Sugiura, Yuko Nitahara, Yu Michimuko-Nagahara, Natsuko Kaku, Yoko Onizuka, Carmen-Elena Arias, Maricela Mejia, Karla Alas, Susana Peña, Yasuhiro Maejima, Issei Komuro, Junko Nakajima-Shimada, Yasutoshi Kido
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2023
• Subjects: Trypanosoma cruzi; Chagas disease; Transcriptome; HL-1; In vitro modeling; Dilated cardiomyopathy; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s41182-023-00552-6; https://doaj.org/article/3e5f69651e364dbbadcb1df0304f3316

Abstract Background Chagas disease can lead to life-threatening cardiac manifestations. Regional factors, including genetic characteristics of circulating Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), have attracted attention as likely determinants of Chagas disease phenotypic expression and Chagas cardiomyopathy (CCM) progression. Our objective was to elucidate the differential transcriptomic signatures of cardiomyocytes resulting from infection with genetically discrete T. cruzi strains and explore their relationships with CCM pathogenesis and progression. Methods HL-1 rodent cardiomyocytes were infected with T. cruzi trypomastigotes of the Colombian, Y, or Tulahuen strain. RNA was serially isolated post-infection for microarray analysis. Enrichment analyses of differentially expressed genes (fold-change ≥ 2 or ≤ 0.5) highlighted over-represented biological pathways. Intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were compared between T. cruzi-infected and non-infected HL-1 cardiomyocytes. Results We found that oxidative stress-related gene ontology terms (GO terms), ‘Hypertrophy model’, ‘Apoptosis’, and ‘MAPK signaling’ pathways (all with P < 0.01) were upregulated. ‘Glutathione and one-carbon metabolism’ pathway, and ‘Cellular nitrogen compound metabolic process’ GO term (all with P < 0.001) were upregulated exclusively in the cardiomyocytes infected with the Colombian/Y strains. Mean intracellular levels of ROS were significantly higher in the T. cruzi-infected cardiomyocytes compared to the non-infected (P < 0.0001). Conclusions The upregulation of oxidative stress-related and hypertrophic pathways constitutes the universal hallmarks of the cardiomyocyte response elicited by T. cruzi infection. Nitrogen metabolism upregulation and glutathione metabolism imbalance may implicate a relationship between nitrosative stress and poor oxygen radicals scavenging in the unique pathophysiology of Chagas cardiomyopathy.