12th International Conference of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Chagas disease remains a serious public health problem. Once the acute infection is over, chronic phase is established and is normally is characterized by cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias and stroke. Benznidazole treatment as well as therapeutic and prognostic methods must be improved. Several mechanisms explain the pathophysiology of cardiac injury. The inflammatory response triggered by the presence of tissue parasites seems to be the most important factor in the production of these lesions. Since ghrelin displays cardioprotective and anti-inflammatory actions, 36 male Wistar rats were randomized in 6 groups (C: control, CG: control ghrelin-treated, I: infected, IG: infected ghrelin-treated, IB: Infected benznidazole-treated, IGB: infected ghrelin and benznidazole-treated. Ghrelin (100µg/Kg) and benznidazole (100mg/kg/day) were evaluated 150 days after infection. Animals were intraperitoneally infected with 2x105 blood forms of Y strain and Troponin I and T, NT-pro-BNP, cardiac histopathology and PCR were evaluated. For infected or ghrelin treated animals, no morphological and functional alterations were detected, despite the detection of the parasite in cardiac tissue by PCR.