Shared and divergent features of the immune response to acute and chronic Trypanosoma cruzi infection in mice revealed by cardiac transcriptomics

In mouse cardiac tissue infected with Trypanosoma cruzi, RNA-seq shows acute infection triggers broad interferon-driven immune activation, while chronic infection contracts it to a sustained antigen-presentation core.

• Why it matters: The molecular programs governing how infected heart tissue shifts from acute pathogenic inflammation to long-term parasite persistence are not fully defined.
• What they did: Using bioluminescence imaging and histology to map parasite distribution, the team performed RNA sequencing on anatomically standardized heart samples from acute and chronic stages.
• The result: Chronic infection preserved a tightly connected antigen presentation network centered on major histocompatibility complex genes and immunoproteasome components, with no broad extracellular matrix/fibrosis activation, and revealed a conserved 20-gene signature shared across stages.

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