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Trypanosoma cruzi is the etiological agent of Chagas disease, whose clinical outcome ranges from asymptomatic individuals to chronic fatal megasyndromes. Despite being central to pathogenesis, the regulation of parasite virulence factors’ expression remains largely unknown. In this work, the relative expression of several parasite virulence factors between two TcI strains (Ninoa, low virulence and Qro, high virulence) was assessed by qRT-PCR of total and of polysome-associated mRNA, as well as by western blots. Trypomastigotes were also incubated with specific anti-sense morpholino oligonucleotides to block the translation of a selected virulence factor, calreticulin, in both strains. Ninoa trypomastigotes showed significantly lower levels of trypomastigote-decay acceleration factor, complement regulatory protein, complement C2 receptor inhibitor trispanning, and glycoproteins 82 and 90 mRNAs compared …