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This study aimed to evaluate well-documented diagnostic antigens, named B13, 1F8 and JL7 recombinant proteins, as potential markers of seroconversion in treated chagasic patients. Prospective study, involving 203 patients treated with benznidazole, was conducted from endemic areas of northern Argentina. Follow-up was possible in 107 out of them and blood samples were taken for serology and PCR assays before and 2, 3, 6, 12, 24 and 36 months after treatment initiation. Reactivity against Trypanosoma cruzi lysate and recombinant antigens was measured by ELISA. The rate of decrease of antibody titers showed nonlinear kinetics with an abrupt drop within the first three months after initiation of treatment for all studied antigens, followed by a plateau displaying a low decay until the end of follow-up. At this point, anti-B13, anti-1F8 and anti-JL7 titers were relatively close to the cut-off line, while anti-T. cruzi antibodies still remained positive. At baseline, 60.8% (45/74) of analysed patients tested positive for parasite DNA by PCR and during the follow-up period in 34 out of 45 positive samples (75.5%) could not be detected T. cruzi DNA. Our results suggest that these antigens might be useful as early markers for monitoring antiparasitic treatment in chronic Chagas disease.

It is currently unknown whether treatment of Chagas disease decreases the risk of congenital transmission from previously treated mothers to their infants. In a cohort of women with Chagas disease previously treated with benznidazole, no congenital transmission of the disease was observed in their newborns. This finding provides support for the treatment of Chagas disease as early as possible.

Index code	Element
ti	article title
au	author
kw	article keywords
subject	subject (title words, abstract and keywords)
ab	abstract
ta	journal short title (e.g. Cad. Saúde Pública)
journal_title	journal full title (e.g. Cadernos de Saúde Pública)
la	publication language code (e.g. pt - Portuguese, es - Spanish)
type	document type
pid	publication identifier
publication_year	publication year of publication
sponsor	sponsor
aff_country	country code of the author's affiliation
aff_institution	author affiliation institution
volume	article volume
issue	article issue
elocation	elocation
doi	DOI number
issn	journal ISSN
in	SciELO colection code (e.g. scl - Brasil, col - Colômbia)
use_license	article usage license code

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