The Ethical Committee of Clinical Research of Hospital Clinic (Barcelona, Spain; reference no. Reg. HCB/2015/0616) approved this project. The patient provided written informed consent before sample collection.

In 2009, a 51-year-old patient from Bolivia with a history of chronic Chagas disease, exhibiting severe organ involvement (chronic cardiomyopathy Kuschnir III and megacolon and megaesophagus degree IV) (5), was admitted to the International Health Department (Hospital Clinic, Barcelona). Serologic diagnosis for chronic Chagas disease was performed using 2 ELISA kits (Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, https://www.orthoclinicaldiagnostics.com) and BioELISA Chagas (Biokit, https://www.biokit.com). Together with clinical management of dysphagia and constipation, a pacemaker in the context of third-degree atrioventricular block was implanted. In July 2015, an echocardiogram revealed iterative cardiac failure and severe ventricular dysfunction (ejection fraction 15%–20%). On November 28, 2015, the patient underwent heart transplantation without incident, and results of follow-up endomyocardial biopsies showed no early signs of transplant rejection.

After transplantation and in the context of immunosuppression therapy (Table 1), quantitative PCR (qPCR) was performed weekly to detect T. cruzi in the blood (Tc-qPCR) (7). First benznidazole treatment was started when several consecutive and positive Tc-qPCRs confirmed Chagas disease reactivation. Three weeks after benznidazole treatment, the Tc-qPCR became negative. After completion of 80% of the treatment, bronchopulmonary aspergillosis developed, and the benznidazole course was interrupted. The Tc-qPCR became positive and a second benznidazole course was initiated; this time the patient completed the initial prescribed dose without evidence of therapeutic failure based on Tc-qPCR results. Plasma samples for purification and characterization of EVs were collected before the first benznidazole treatment and just after the second course (Table 1). Unexpectedly, the patient died in August 2016 because of a late organ rejection. Therefore, samples at 6 and 12 months posttreatment, already included in the approved protocol, were not collected.

Figure 1

Figure 1. Isolation and characterization of plasma-derived EVs. A) Schematic diagram of the isolation and characterization of EVs derived from plasma samples. The details of each step are explained in The Study section....

To determine whether circulating EVs from this patient could have been used as predictive biomarkers to evaluate therapeutic response and disease outcome in the Chagas disease context, we collected pretreatment and posttreatment plasma samples, and EVs were enriched by size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) and characterized as described (8) (Figure 1, panel A). As negative controls, plasma samples from 2 healthy donors were also subjected to SEC. We characterized eluting EVs by bead-based assay and Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (Figure 1, panels B, C). We pooled aliquots (100 μL) from SEC fractions 7–10 and determined protein composition using 2D-liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (2D-LC-MS/MS). In brief, samples were digested with trypsin and resulting peptides were resolved by high-pH reversed-phase peptide fractionation (9), followed by C18 reversed-phase nanoflow ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography coupled to a Q Exactive Plus Hybrid Quadrupole-Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer (QE Plus MS; Thermo Fisher Scientific, https://www.thermofisher.com), as described (10). Raw 2D-LC-MS/MS data were analyzed using Proteome Discoverer version 2.1.1.21 software (Thermo Fisher Scientific), followed by Scaffold perSPECtives version 4.8.7 (Proteome Software; http://www.proteomesoftware.com). A protein database with combined human, T. cruzi, and potential contaminants was generated from UniProt (https://www.uniprot.org). Using a false-discovery rate <1% and 1 unique peptide per protein, we identified 12 T. cruzi proteins and 338 human proteins (Appendix). However, when we applied the more stringent criterion of >2 unique peptides per protein, we detected only 1 T. cruzi protein (i.e., pyruvate phosphate dikinase [PPDK]), and 288 human proteins, of which we identified 19 only in pretreatment samples (Table 2). PPDK has been identified by proteomic analysis of T. cruzi total secretome and EVs (10–12). This protein plays a central role in the metabolism of T. cruzi glycosomes and has been shown to be upregulated when trypomastigote forms are incubated with the extracellular matrix, an obligatory step before host-cell invasion and differentiation of trypomastigote into amastigote forms (13). The specific role of PPDK in EVs secreted by this patient remains to be determined.

Among the 19 human proteins uniquely identified in EVs from the patient with chronic Chagas disease before treatment, the mannan binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2) is worth highlighting. A recent study with human samples showed that MASP2 gene polymorphisms and MASP2 levels are associated with high risk for chronic Chagas disease cardiomyopathy (14). Furthermore, mannose-binding lectin, which activates complement on T. cruzi through MASP2, has been related to a decrease in blood and tissue parasite load and in myocarditis and cardiac fibrosis in experimental T. cruzi infection (15). In this study, mRNA levels of collagen-1 and -6 increased in the infected animals’ hearts (15). These results could support our findings because collagen α-1 is one of the proteins identified exclusively in EVs before patient treatment (Table 2).

Figure 2

Figure 2. Human proteomic profile of plasma-derived EVs from a heart transplant patient with chronic Chagas disease before and after BZN treatment and from 2 healthy donors. Heatmap of the identified human EV-derived...

Another important observation is the identification of a higher number of human proteins in patient-derived EVs than in the 2 healthy donor–derived EV samples (Figure 2; Appendix). Of the total proteins identified, in which statistical analysis was feasible, 4 were significantly upregulated in patient-derived EVs before treatment, particularly for the proteins complement C1s subcomponent, isoform CRA_b, FLJ00385 protein, and cDNA FLJ75416 (Appendix). Complement C1s subcomponent recently was identified among the 6 upregulated EV biomarkers with potential for clinical applications in myocardial infarction (3).

Proteins associated with EVs secreted by T. cruzi have been identified in the conditioned medium of different parasite stages (11–13) but not in biofluids from Chagas disease patients. We described the proteomic profiling of plasma-derived EVs purified directly from a heart transplant patient with chronic Chagas disease who exhibited reactivation after immunosuppression. We identified human and parasite proteins present or upregulated in plasma-derived EVs from a chronic Chagas disease patient before chemotherapy and that are absent or downregulated after treatment. We thus hypothesize that EV proteins released by the host or parasite during infection might be potential biomarker candidates for evaluating therapeutic response and disease outcome in chronic Chagas disease, independently of the immunologic status of patients.

However, our results should be interpreted with caution because they represent a single clinical case. Further research is needed to validate and provide stronger evidence that circulating EVs in patients with chronic Chagas disease can serve as biomarkers in disease progression and early assessment of therapeutic outcomes. Moreover, the future incorporation of such validated biomarkers in a point-of-care device could help in the detection of very low parasites in circulation, particularly when concentrations are below the PCR detection level (2).