The expression profile of PIWI-interacting RNAs regulated by Trypanosoma cruzi during early infection of primary human cardiac myocytes

Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease, afflicts several million individuals worldwide. About 30% of infected individuals will eventually present with a form of severe cardiac pathology. During the early phase of infection, the parasite induces changes in the gene expression profile of primary human cardiomyocytes (PHCM) through a mechanism which remains to be well elucidated. The role that small non-coding RNAs (sncRNA) including PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA) play in regulating gene expression during the early phase of infection remains to be elucidated.