The November issue of the journal Memories of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute brings a warning: for the first time, recognized vectors of Chagas disease, triatomine insects classified as Triatoma maculatahave been identified as a colony in a home environment in Brazil. Scientists from Oswaldo Cruz Institute (IOC / Fiocruz), the Federal University of Roraima, the Roraima State Health Department and the Center of Entomology of Special Indigenous Sanitary District Yanomami report in an article that 127 kissing bugs were found inside a brick in an air-conditioning niche in a residential condominium in Boa Vista, Roraima.

The discovery of massive infestation in a building with good construction conditions surprised the researchers. "The fact that T. maculata kissing bugs can live in external niches and plastered walls of human habitation is a new fact in the epidemiology of Chagas disease in the Americas that should not be overlooked", highlighted the authors  in the article.

The surprise is justified by the fact that the insect vectors ofTrypanosoma cruzi parasite, which causes Chagas disease, the kissing bugs, are usually detected in the vicinity of households; in nests of birds, mostly pigeons; chicken houses; pigsties and corrals. But not in urbanized areas like the location of the condominium of Roraima.

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Fiotec in the fight against Chagas disease

Fiocruz works on several fronts to slow the spread of the parasite that causes the disease. Today, the Foundation has the support of Fiotec to develop two projects on this subject. One is the discovery of compounds that interfere with the trypanothione synthesis in trypanosomes (parasites that cause Chagas disease).

The study is coordinated by Camila Indiani de Oliveira, from the Institute Gonzalo Muniz, Fiocruz Bahia. The researcher leads the works seeking for new chemical compounds with specific anti-trypanosomatid potential, i.e., they act on the trypanothione synthetase (trys), an essential enzyme for the development of trypanosomes and that is not naturally found in the host metabolism.