Acanthamoeba castellanii is a free-living organism widely distributed in the environment that may cause disease. This protozoan exists in two forms, an infective trophozoite and a dormant cyst. The trophozoites are able to cause keratitis and granulomatous amoebic encephalitis in humans.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeveral strains of free-living amoebae belonging to the genus Acanthamoeba can cause a painful sight-threatening disease of the cornea known as Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK). The numbers of AK cases keep rising worldwide mainly due to an increase in contact lens wearers and lack of hygiene in the maintenance of contact lenses and their cases. We report a case of AK in a healthy young woman admitted to the Hospital de Clinicas in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcanthamoeba spp. are free-living protists widely distributed in environment, able to cause keratitis, encephalitis and skin lesions in humans and animals. Acanthamoeba spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmoebae of the genus Acanthamoeba occur worldwide and in addition to being pathogens, are important vehicles for microorganisms with clinical and environmental importance. This study aimed to evaluate the profiling of endosymbionts in 12 isolates of Acanthamoeba using V3 region of 16S rDNA denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and sequencing. The DGGE enabled us to characterize the endosymbionts diversity in isolates of Acanthamoeba, and to identify Paenibacillus sp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRev Inst Med Trop Sao Paulo
July 2015
Acanthamoeba is a "Trojan horse" of the microbial world. The aim of this study was to identify the presence of Pseudomonas as an amoeba-resistant microorganism in 12 isolates of Acanthamoeba. All isolates showed the genus Pseudomonas spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcanthamoeba polyphaga is a free-living protozoan pathogen, whose infective trophozoite form is capable of causing a blinding keratitis and fatal granulomatous encephalitis in humans. The damage caused by A. polyphaga trophozoites in human corneal or brain infections is the result of several different pathogenic mechanisms that have not yet been elucidated at the molecular level.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcanthamoeba is a protist potential pathogen, capable of causing a blinding keratitis in contact lens wearers and disseminated infection, leading to granulomatous amebic encephalitis in immunocompromised individuals. This amoeba is a ubiquitous organism that has been isolated from various domestic water systems, such as cooling towers and hospital water networks. The objective of this work was to investigate the presence of Acanthamoeba in mineral water bottles marketed in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProlonged culturing of many microorganisms leads to the loss of virulence and a reduction of their infective capacity. However, little is known about the changes in the pathogenic strains of Acanthamoeba after long culture periods. Our study evaluated the effect of prolonged culturing on the invasiveness of different isolates of Acanthamoeba in an in vivo rat model.
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