1887

Abstract

Pathogenic strains of are causative agents of a sight-threatening infection of the cornea known as keratitis, which is often associated with the misuse of contact lenses. However, there is still a question remaining to be answered, which is whether these micro-organisms are present on the ocular surface of healthy individuals. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the presence of on the ocular surface in healthy patients and also in those with other ocular surface infections. Sterile Schirmer test strips were used to collect samples from a group of patients who attended an ophthalmology consultation at the Hospital del Norte, Icod de los Vinos, Tenerife, Canary Islands. Most of the patients (46 individuals, 79.31  %) presented ocular surface pathologies such as blepharitis or conjunctivitis; the rest did not present any pathology. None of the patients included in the study wore contact lenses. The collected samples were cultured in 2  % non-nutrient agar plates and positive plates were then cultured in axenic conditions for further analyses. Molecular analysis classified all isolated strains as belonging to genotype tbl4, and osmotolerance and thermotolerance assays revealed that all strains were potentially pathogenic. Furthermore, all strains were assayed for sensitivity against voriconazole and chlorhexidine. Assays showed that both drugs were active against the tested strains. In conclusion, the Schirmer strip test is proposed as an effective tool for the detection of on the ocular surface.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.000103
2015-08-01
2024-03-28
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/jmm/64/8/849.html?itemId=/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.000103&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Arnalich-Montiel F., Martín-Navarro C.M., Alió J.L., López-Vélez R., Martínez-Carretero E., Valladares B., Piñero J.E., Lorenzo-Morales J. 2012; Successful monitoring and treatment of intraocular dissemination of Acanthamoeba . Arch Ophthalmol 130:1474–1475 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Barker J., Brown M.R.W. 1994; Trojan horses of the microbial world: protozoa and the survival of bacterial pathogens in the environment. Microbiology 140:1253–1259 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Booton G.C., Visvesvara G.S., Byers T.J., Kelly D.J., Fuerst P.A. 2005; Identification and distribution of Acanthamoeba species genotypes associated with nonkeratitis infections. J Clin Microbiol 43:1689–1693 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Bradbury R.S., French L.P., Blizzard L. 2014; Prevalence of Acanthamoeba spp. in Tasmanian intensive care clinical specimens. J Hosp Infect 86:178–181 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Khan N.A. 2006; Acanthamoeba: biology and increasing importance in human health. FEMS Microbiol Rev 30:564–595 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Larkin D.F., Kilvington S., Easty D.L. 1990; Contamination of contact lens storage cases by Acanthamoeba and bacteria. Br J Ophthalmol 74:133–135 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Lim N., Goh D., Bunce C., Xing W., Fraenkel G., Poole T.R., Ficker L. 2008; Comparison of polyhexamethylene biguanide and chlorhexidine as monotherapy agents in the treatment of Acanthamoeba keratitis. Am J Ophthalmol 145:130–135 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Lorenzo-Morales J., Ortega-Rivas A., Foronda P., Martínez E., Valladares B. 2005; Isolation and identification of pathogenic Acanthamoeba strains in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain from water sources. Parasitol Res 95:273–277 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Lorenzo-Morales J., Kliescikova J., Martinez-Carretero E., De Pablos L.M., Profotova B., Nohynkova E., Osuna A., Valladares B. 2008; Glycogen phosphorylase in Acanthamoeba spp.: determining the role of the enzyme during the encystment process using RNA interference. Eukaryot Cell 7:509–517 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Lorenzo-Morales J., Martín-Navarro C.M., López-Arencibia A., Arnalich-Montiel F., Piñero J.E., Valladares B. 2013; Acanthamoeba keratitis: an emerging disease gathering importance worldwide?. Trends Parasitol 29:181–187 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Lorenzo-Morales J., Khan N.A., Walochnik J. 2015; An update on Acanthamoeba keratitis: diagnosis, pathogenesis and treatment. Parasite 22:10 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Madrigal Sesma M.J., Santillana López I. 1989; [Isolation of free-living amoebas from samples of respiratory origin]. Rev Sanid Hig Publica (Madr) 63:63–72 (in Spanish) [PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Magnet A., Henriques-Gil N., Galván-Diaz A.L., Izquiedo F., Fenoy S., del Aguila C. 2014; Novel Acanthamoeba 18S rRNA gene sequence type from an environmental isolate. Parasitol Res 113:2845–2850 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Marciano-Cabral F., Cabral G. 2003; Acanthamoeba spp. as agents of disease in humans. Clin Microbiol Rev 16:273–307 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Martín-Navarro C.M., Lorenzo-Morales J., Cabrera-Serra M.G., Rancel F., Coronado-Alvarez N.M., Piñero J.E., Valladares B. 2008; The potential pathogenicity of chlorhexidine-sensitive Acanthamoeba strains isolated from contact lens cases from asymptomatic individuals in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. J Med Microbiol 57:1399–1404 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Martín-Navarro C.M., Lorenzo-Morales J., Machin R.P., López-Arencibia A., García-Castellano J.M., de Fuentes I., Loftus B., Maciver S.K., Valladares B., Piñero J.E. 2013; Inhibition of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase and application of statins as a novel effective therapeutic approach against Acanthamoeba infections. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 57:375–381 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Niyyati M., Lorenzo-Morales J., Rahimi F., Motevalli-Haghi A., Martín-Navarro C.M., Farnia S., Valladares B., Rezaeian M. 2009; Isolation and genotyping of potentially pathogenic Acanthamoeba strains from dust sources in Iran. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 103:425–427 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Qvarnstrom Y., Nerad T.A., Visvesvara G.S. 2013; Characterization of a new pathogenic Acanthamoeba species, A. byersi n. sp., isolated from a human with fatal amoebic encephalitis. J Eukaryot Microbiol 60:626–633 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Rivera F., Medina F., Ramírez P., Alcocer J., Vilaclara G., Robles E. 1984; Pathogenic and free-living protozoa cultured from the nasopharyngeal and oral regions of dental patients. Environ Res 33:428–440 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Shoff M.E., Joslin C.E., Tu E.Y., Kubatko L., Fuerst P.A. 2008; Efficacy of contact lens systems against recent clinical and tap water Acanthamoeba isolates. Cornea 27:713–719[PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Siddiqui R., Khan N.A. 2012; Biology and pathogenesis of Acanthamoeba . Parasit Vectors 5:6 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Simmons P.A., Tomlinson A., Seal D.V. 1998; The role of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm in the attachment of Acanthamoeba to four types of hydrogel contact lens materials. Optom Vis Sci 75:860–866[PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Tamura K., Peterson D., Peterson N., Stecher G., Nei M., Kumar S. 2011; mega5: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis using maximum likelihood, evolutionary distance, and maximum parsimony methods. Mol Biol Evol 28:2731–2739 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.000103
Loading
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.000103
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error