Acanthamoeba and Naegleria are widely distributed in fresh water, soil and dust throughout the world, and cause meningoencephalitis or keratoconjunctivitis in humans and other mammals. Korean isolates, namely, Naegleria sp. YM-1 and Acanthamoeba sp. YM-2, YM-3, YM-4, YM-5, YM-6 and YM-7, were collected from sewage, water puddles, a storage reservoir, the gills of a fresh water fish, and by corn...

PURPOSE Developing a DNA dot hybridization model for diagnosing parasitic keratitis. METHODS Newly designed oligonucleotide probes for detecting Acanthamoeba and microsporidia were tested with target reference strains of Acanthamoeba (n = 20) and microsporidia (n = 3), and non-target microorganisms, including bacteria (n = 20) and fungi (n = 20). These probes, which had passed the preliminary...

acanthamoeba keratitis is a vision-threatening infection caused by pathogenic species of the genus acanthamoeba. in this study, 13 acanthamoeba keratitis cases were diagnosed among 52 keratitis patients. to confirm the identity of acanthamoeba at the genus level, a pcr-based method was used, and their pathogenic potential was determined using in vitro cytotoxicity assays on human corneal epithe...

Introduction Definition Free-living amebae of the genera Naegleria, Acanthamoeba, and Balamuthia cause fatal diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) of humans.1-33 Naegleria fowleri causes an acute and fulminant primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) in children and young adults with a history of exposure to fresh water leading to death within 5 to 10 days after the onset of symptoms.4-6...

background: free-living amoeba (fla)-related keratitis is a progressive infection of the cornea with poor prognosis. the present study aimed to investigates the con­tact lenses of patients with keratitis for pathogenic free-living amoebae. methods: overall, 62 contact lenses and their paraphernalia of patients with kerati­tis cultured and tested for the presence of free-living amoebae using mor...

A survey was carried out from August to December 2004 in Pusan, Korea to document the presence of free-living amoeba (FLA), including the genus Acanthamoeba, in both contact lens storage cases and domestic tap water. Acanthamoeba was isolated from 5 (4.2%) in 120 contact lens storage cases. Four house tap water samples from residents, whose contact lens storage cases had been contaminated by Ac...

Monoclonal antibodies to Naegleria fowleri and Acanthamoeba polyphaga were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, indirect immunofluorescence microscopy, and fluorescence flow cytometry to assess specificity and cross-reactivity with axenically cultured N. fowleri and Acanthamoeba spp. Four monoclonal antibodies to N. fowleri were specific for N. fowleri and had no reactivity to A. poly...

Opportunistic infections due to free-living amoebae such as Granulomatous Amoebic Encephalitis (GAE), cutaneous acanthamoebiasis and disseminated infections could be the causative agent of mortality in people living with HIV/AIDS. In this study, we report the occurrence of the Acanthamoeba belonging to the T4 genotype isolated from nasal and oral swabs of a 15-yr-old man with HIV infection. HIV...

Background: Acanthamoeba is a resistant protozoan that causes severe diseases, such as GAE and CAK. Because many medications are ineffective on the parasite, the quest to find alternative drugs is in progress. Objective: This research was aim 13 ed to assess the performance of the black and green tea extracts on Acanthamoeba. Methods: The clinical isolate of Aca...