Objective:

Determine the behavior of Chagas's disease, comparing the intraperitoneal (i.p.), and the oral (v.o.) administration routes, by the ingestion of T. cruzi-contaminated food.

Materials and methods:

In mice, parasitemia oral and intraperitoneal acquiring routes were compared. Two groups were inoculated with T. cruzi (3x103) NINOA strain: one orally, and another intraperitoneally. Additionally, a hearth tissue histopathologic analysis was performed. Finally, the immune response triggered by both inoculation routes was determined by a homemade ELISA and compared.

Results:

The infection behavior was different in each inoculation route. In the orally infected group, infection was undetectable by parasitological, and histopathologic methods; interestingly, infection was detected by immune methods. Orally infected individuals using acai behaved similarly to intraperitoneally inoculated ones.

Discussion:

The vector and hosts close coexistence promote several infection routes. To improve the diagnosis, disease's course variants knowledge is needed.

Conclusion:

This study shows that the infection route strongly influences Chagas's disease course. Moreover, this work provides evidence that support the fact of doing more than one diagnostic test, improving the disease management.

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