The impact of vaccine-linked chemotherapy on liver health in a mouse model of chronic Trypanosoma cruzi infection.

, which has long-term deleterious health effects. The current treatment for Chagas disease is administering the antiparasitic drug, benznidazole. While benznidazole effectively treats the disease during the acute phase, its efficacy is reduced during chronic infection. In addition, benznidazole therapy causes significant side effects, including liver toxicity. Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development at Baylor College of Medicine has developed a treatment strategy that combines a prototype therapeutic vaccine with a lower dose of Benznidazole to promote a protective immune response, ameliorate the deleterious effects of the parasite, and limit the harmful side effect of the drug. We call this vaccine-linked chemotherapy, which has shown promising results regarding heart health by reducing parasite burden and pathology in the heart and improving cardiac function. This study evaluated the strategy's effectiveness in the liver since it is the prime metabolizer of the benznidazole drug, as well as the organ of parasite clearance. Results from this study demonstrated that vaccine-linked chemotherapy causes less damage to the liver compared to curative doses of benznidazole and may be a desirable treatment strategy to preserve overall health while retaining efficacy.