Acanthamoeba spp. as vehicles of pathogenic bacteria

• Autorzy: Hadas E , Derda M , Winiecka-Krusnell J , Sulek A
• Języki publikacji: EN

Abstrakty

EN

The role of the genus Acanthamoeba in the process of maintaining, multiplying and transmitting human pathogens has not been well recognized. The aim of our study was to evaluate the association of potentially pathogenic Acanthamoeba spp. with bacteria in strains recently isolated from Lake Malta near the city of Poznań, Poland. Most of the isolated amoebae belonged to the species A. castellanii and A. rhysodes. The majority of the isolates were pathogenic for mice and amoebae could be recovered from their brains and lungs. In those cases when amoebae could not be recovered from the autopsy material histopathological analysis showed changes in tissues indicating bacterial infection. We found that approximately 50% of the isolates were associated with endosymbiotic or endocytobiotic bacteria, e.g., Proteus sp., Micrococcus sp., Chryseobacterium meningosepticum, Clostridium perfringens, Escherichia coli, Salmonella sp., Legionella pneumophila and other species. The presence of bacteria residing inside free-living amoebae possess a great challenge in terms of disease control and sanitation of contaminated water sources.

Słowa kluczowe

EN

Lake Malta; Acanthamoeba; pathogenicity; Poznan city; pathogenic bacteria; free-living amoeba

• Wydawca: -
• Czasopismo: Acta Parasitologica
• Rocznik: 2004
• Tom: 49
• Numer: 4
• Opis fizyczny: p.276-280,fig.,ref.

Twórcy

autor

Hadas E

• Department of Biology and Medical Parasitology, University of Medical Sciences, 10 Fredry Street, 61-701 Poznan, Poland

autor

Derda M

• Department of Biology and Medical Parasitology, University of Medical Sciences, 10 Fredry Street, 61-701 Poznan, Poland

autor

Winiecka-Krusnell J

• Parasitology Unit, Swedish Institute for Infectious Diseases Control, Stockholm, Sweden

autor

Sulek A

• Department of Biology and Medical Parasitology, University of Medical Sciences, 10 Fredry Street, 61-701 Poznan, Poland

Bibliografia

• Barker J., Brown M.R. 1994. Trojan horses of the microbial world: protozoa and the survival of bacterial pathogens in the environment. Microbiology,. 140, 1253-1259.
• Berk S.G., Ting R.S., Turner G.W., Ashburn R.J. 1998. Production of respirable vesicles containing live Legionella pneumophila cells by two Acanthamoeba spp. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 64, 279-286.
• Červa L. 1966. Use of fluorescent antibody technique to identify pathogenic Hartmannellae in tissue of experimental animals. Folia Parasitologica, 13, 328-331.
• Červa L. 1969. Amoebic meningoencephalitis: axenic culture of Naegleria. Science, 163, 576.
• Cirillo J.D., Falkow S., Tompkins L.S. 1994. Growth of Legionella pneumophila in Acanthamoeba castellanii enhances invasion. Infection and Immunity, 62, 3254-3261.
• Fritsche T.R., Gautom R.K., Seyedirashti S., Bergeron D.L., Lindquist T.D. 1993. Occurrence of bacterial endosymbionts in Acanthamoeba spp. isolated from corneal and environmental specimens and contact lens. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 31, 1122-1126.
• Hadaś E., Kasprzak W., Mazur T. 1977. Electrophoretic characterisation of small free-living amoebae. Tropenmedizin und Parasitologie, 28, 35-43.
• Hadaś E., Mazur T. 1993. Proteolytic enzymes of pathogenic and non-pathogenic strains of Acanthamoeba spp. Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, 44, 197-200.
• Horn M., Fritsche T.R., Linner T., Gautom R.K., Harzenetter M.D., Wagner M. 2002. Obligate bacterial endosymbionts of Acanthamoeba spp. related to the beta-Proteobacteria: proposal of ‘Candidatus Probacter acanthamoebae’ gen. nov., sp. nov. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, 52, 599-605.
• Kasprzak W., Mazur T. 1972. Free living amoebae isolated from waters frequented by people in the vicinity of Poznan, Poland. Experimental studies in mice on the pathogenicity of the isolates. Zeitschrift für Tropenmedizin und Parasitologie, 23, 391-398.
• Marciano-Cabral F., Cabral G. 2003. Acanthamoeba spp. as agents of disease in humans. Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 16, 273- 307.
• Martinez A.J. 1985. Free-living amebas: natural history, prevention, diagnosis, pathology and treatment of disease. CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, Florida.
• Mazur T. 1984. Występowanie Naegleria fowleri w środowisku wolnym i właściwości biologiczne izolowanych szczepów. Wiadomości Parazytologiczne, 30, 3-35.
• McKerrow J.H., Pino-Heiss S., Lindquist R., Werb Z. 1985. Purification and characterization of an elastinolytic proteinase secreted by cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 260, 3703-3707.
• Ockert G. 1993. Review article: occurrence, parasitism and pathogenetic potency of free-living amoebae. Applied Parasitology, 34, 77-88.
• Page F.C. 1988. A new key to freshwater and soil gymnamoebae. Freshwater Biological Association, Ambleside, Cumbria, England.
• Rowbotham T.J. 1980. Preliminary report on the pathogenicity of Legionella pneumophila for freshwater and soil amoebae. Journal of Clinical Pathology, 33, 1179-1183.
• Skriwan C., Fajardo M., Hagele S., Horn M., Wagner M., Michel R., Krohne G., Schleicher M., Hacker J., Steinert M. 2002. Various bacterial pathogens and symbionts infect the amoebae Dictyostelium discoideum. International Journal oft Medical Microbiology, 291, 615-624.
• Tyndall R.L., Domingue E.L. 1982. Cocultivation of Legionella pneumophila and free-living amoebae. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 44, 954-959.
• Winiecka-Krusnell J., Linder W. 2001. Bacterial infections of free- living amoebae. Research in Microbiology, 152, 613-619.