A <i>Trypanosoma cruzi</i> Trans-Sialidase Peptide Demonstrates High Serological Prevalence Among Infected Populations Across Endemic Regions of Latin America

Abstract

Infection by <i>Trypanosoma cruzi</i>, the agent of Chagas disease, can irreparably damage the cardiac and gastrointestinal systems during decades of parasite persistence and related inflammation in these tissues. Diagnosis of chronic disease requires confirmation by multiple serological assays due to the imperfect performance of existing clinical tests. Current serology tests utilize antigens discovered over three decades ago with small specimen sets predominantly from South America, and lower test performance has been observed in patients who acquired <i>T. cruzi</i> infection in Central America and Mexico. Here, we attempt to address this gap by evaluating antibody responses against the entire <i>T. cruzi</i> proteome with phage display immunoprecipitation sequencing comprised of 228,127 47-amino acid peptides. We utilized diverse specimen sets from Mexico, Central America and South America, as well as different stages of cardiac disease severity, from 185 cases and 143 controls. We identified over 1,300 antigenic <i>T. cruzi</i> peptides derived from 961 proteins between specimen sets. A total of 67 peptides were reactive in 70% of samples across all regions, and 3 peptide epitopes were enriched in ≥90% of seropositive samples. Of these three, only one antigen, belonging to the trans-sialidase family, has not previously been described as a diagnostic target. Orthogonal validation of this peptide demonstrated increased antibody reactivity for infections originating from Central America. Overall, this study provides proteome-wide identification of seroreactive <i>T. cruzi</i> peptides across a large cohort spanning multiple endemic areas and identified a novel trans-sialidase peptide antigen (TS-2.23) with significant potential for translation into diagnostic serological assays.