The free-living amoebae of the genus Acanthamoeba include non-pathogenic and pathogenic species and has been recently classified into 15 different genotypes, T1-T15. In this study, a survey was conducted in order to determine the presence and pathogenic potential of free-living amoebae of Acanthamoeba genus in freshwater sources associated with human activities in the Nile Delta region, Egypt. Identification of Acanthamoeba was based on the morphology of cyst and trophozoite forms and PCR amplification with a genus specific primer pair. The pathogenic potential of Acanthamoeba isolates was characterized using temperature and osmotolerance assays and PCR reactions with two primer pairs specific to Acanthamoeba pathogenesis. Isolates genotypes were also determined after ribosomal DNA sequencing. These data revealed that isolates belong to T1, T2, T3, T4 and T7 genotypes. As expected, T4 isolates exhibited the most pathogenic traits and were osmotolerant, temperature tolerant and expressed extracellular serine proteases. This is the first report presenting environmental distribution of Acanthamoeba genotypes in Egypt.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actatropica.2006.09.008 | DOI Listing |
J Ophthalmic Inflamm Infect
January 2025
School of medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical sciences, Yazd, Iran.
Introduction: Infectious keratitis is a rare but devastating complication following photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) that may lead to visual impairment. This study assessed the clinical features, treatment strategies, and outcomes of post-PRK infectious keratitis.
Methods: This retrospective study was conducted on patients with post-PRK infectious keratitis presenting to Khalili Hospital, Shiraz, Iran, from June 2011 to March 2024.
ISME J
January 2025
Information Génomique & Structurale, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7256, Aix-Marseille University, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, IMM, IM2B, 13288, Marseille Cedex 9, France.
The microbial sampling of submarine hydrothermal vents remains challenging, with even fewer studies focused on viruses. Here we report the first isolation of a eukaryotic virus from the Lost City hydrothermal field, by co-culture with the laboratory host Acanthamoeba castellanii. This virus, named pacmanvirus lostcity, is closely related to previously isolated pacmanviruses (strains A23 and S19), clustering in a divergent clade within the long-established family Asfarviridae.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActa Parasitol
January 2025
Research Center for Hydatid Disease in Iran, Institute of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Afzalipour School of Medicine, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
Objective: Different Acanthamoeba species are among the most ubiquitous organisms causing serious diseases in humans including central nervous system (CNS) and eye infections. Contact lenses, lens care solutions and the hospital environments particularly the indoor and outdoor environments of ophthalmology wards where people are present with different types of eye diseases, are the potential sources of human infection. The purpose of the present study was the molecular investigation of free-living amoebae in the used contact lenses, lens care solutions and hospital samples from the ophthalmology wards and operating rooms in a referral hospital in southeastern Iran.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicroorganisms
November 2024
Laser Eye Microsurgery Centre Clinic of Prof. Jerzy Szaflik, 00-215 Warsaw, Poland.
Background: Diseases in humans caused by amphizoic amoebae that can result in visual impairment and even blindness, have recently been identified more frequently worldwide. Etiologically complex incidents of keratitis, including those connected with strains detected in Poland, were evaluated in this study.
Methods: Corneal samples from cases resistant to antimicrobial therapy assessed for epidemiological, microbiological and parasitological aspects were investigated by phase-contrast microscope, slit lamp and by confocal microscopy.
Genome Biol Evol
January 2025
Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, Division of Microbial Ecology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1030, Austria.
The need for high-quality protist genomes has prevented in-depth computational and experimental studies of giant virus-host interactions. In addition, our current knowledge of host range is highly biased due to the few hosts used to isolate novel giant viruses. This study presents 6 high-quality amoeba genomes from known and potential giant virus hosts belonging to 2 distinct eukaryotic clades: Amoebozoa and Discoba.
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