Differential diagnosis of Trypanosoma cruzi and T. rangeli infection by PCR of cysteine proteinase genes.

Abstract

Trypanosoma cruzi is the causative parasite of Chagas' disease, while the closely related T. rangeli is non-pathogenic in humans. Restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) of a portion of the cysteine proteinase gene were used to distinguish T. cruzi from T. rangeli. This procedure was very sensitive, with a single cell of either species being sufficient for the PCR. The sensitivity and clear ability to distinguish between T. cruzi and T. rangeli suggest that this procedure may be easily applied in the field.