Chagas Disease: Identifying Peptides in Trypanosoma cruzi Mass Spectrometry
Conference Year
January 2020
Abstract
Though it is not well known in the United States, there are currently 6-8 million Chagas disease cases in Latin American countries, with 12,000 annual deaths. This disease is life threatening in 1/3 of the cases, where most deaths are a result from cardiac failure. It is caused by a protozoan parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, and is transmitted by insect vectors of the subfamily Triatominae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae). Active vector transmission of this disease is most commonly found in areas within South America, Central America, and Mexico which puts 70,000,000 people at risk. When the triatomine insect vector is taking a bloodmeal, it deposits parasite inculcated feces onto the skin where the parasite will enter open wounds and mucus membranes of mammals. In my research in Dr. Lori Stevens’ lab, I’m identifying peptides from parasites grown in pure culture by analyzing mass spectrometric data using Peaks Software Ver7 and will compare the results to peptides identified via SEQUEST. This will provide important preliminary proteomic data for subsequent field collected vectors to help understand the ecology of disease transmission.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Dr. Lori Stevens
Faculty/Staff Collaborators
Dr. Bryan Ballif, Anna Schmoker, Caroline Dumas, Clarissa Gold, Dr. Patricia Dorn, Dr. Ying-Wai Lam, Raquel Lima-Cordón, Dr. Lori Stevens
Status
Undergraduate
Student College
College of Arts and Sciences
Program/Major
Biology
Primary Research Category
Biological Sciences
Chagas Disease: Identifying Peptides in Trypanosoma cruzi Mass Spectrometry
Though it is not well known in the United States, there are currently 6-8 million Chagas disease cases in Latin American countries, with 12,000 annual deaths. This disease is life threatening in 1/3 of the cases, where most deaths are a result from cardiac failure. It is caused by a protozoan parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, and is transmitted by insect vectors of the subfamily Triatominae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae). Active vector transmission of this disease is most commonly found in areas within South America, Central America, and Mexico which puts 70,000,000 people at risk. When the triatomine insect vector is taking a bloodmeal, it deposits parasite inculcated feces onto the skin where the parasite will enter open wounds and mucus membranes of mammals. In my research in Dr. Lori Stevens’ lab, I’m identifying peptides from parasites grown in pure culture by analyzing mass spectrometric data using Peaks Software Ver7 and will compare the results to peptides identified via SEQUEST. This will provide important preliminary proteomic data for subsequent field collected vectors to help understand the ecology of disease transmission.