The purpose was to identify the prevalence of naked amoebae in tap water in south Florida to ascertain the risk of amoebal infections of the cornea in contact lens wearers. Over the course of a 2-year period, water samples were collected from sites throughout Broward, Palm Beach, and Dade counties, Florida. The presence of amoebae in samples was based on an enrichment cultivation method appropr...

Background and Aims: Acanthamoeba is a ubiquitous amphizoic organism which can cause lethal diseases such as granulomatous amoebic encephalitis and unfortunately, the infection has now increased in the world. The aim here was to evaluate in vitro anti-Acanthamoeba properties of crude aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Myrtus communis. Materials and Methods: In this experimental research, a clin...

Some carbohydrates are known to decrease the attachment of Acanthamoeba sp. to biological surfaces. By a method based on the reduction of a tetrazolium salt (XTT) by the mitochondrial dehydrogenases of the parasites, d-mannose and alpha-d-mannopyranoside have been shown to reduce Acanthamoeba attachment to inert surfaces, indicating that the mannose binding protein of Acanthamoeba trophozoites ...

Acanthamoeba granulomatous encephalitis generally develops as a result of haematogenous spread, but it is unclear how circulating amoebae enter the central nervous system (CNS) and cause inflammation. At present, the mechanisms which Acanthamoeba use to invade this incredibly well-protected area of the CNS and produce infection are not well understood. In this paper, we propose two key virulenc...

Eighteen cases of Acanthamoeba-associated keratitis among contact lens wearers seen at the Department of Ophthalmology, Karl-Franzens-University, Graz, Austria, between 1996 and 1999 are reviewed. The amoebae were proven to be the causative agents in three patients. The aim of our study was to discriminate between clinically relevant and nonrelevant isolates and to assess the relatedness of the...

The binding of tropomyosin to F-actin is strongly dependent on M&+ concentration. With muscle actin, in the presence of 2 mu ATP, binding begins at 4 mM M&+ and is complete at about 4.75 mu Mg+ while, with Acanthamoeba actin, binding is initiated at 6 mu M&+ and reaches saturation at 8.5 InM Mg+. Copolymers of muscle and Acanthamoeba actin, however, behave as unique species of actin, each with ...

The majority of the keratitis-causing Acanthamoeba isolates are genotype T4. In an attempt to determine whether predominance of T4 isolates in Acanthamoeba keratitis is due to greater virulence or greater prevalence of this genotype, Acanthamoeba genotypes were determined for 13 keratitis isolates and 12 environmental isolates from Iran. Among 13 clinical isolates, eight (61.5%) belonged to T4,...

Acanthamoeba keratitis is uncommon, but one of the most severe infectious diseases of the cornea. Delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis as bacterial or herpes simplex keratitis leads to extensive corneal inflammation and profound visual loss. Therefore, accurate and rapid diagnosis of Acanthamoeba keratitis is essential for successful treatment and good prognosis. We evaluated the usefulness of acr...

Acanthamoeba are typically identified in the laboratory using culture and microscopic observation. In this paper we describe the isolation and specificity of antibody fragments that can be used for the identification of Acanthamoeba. A phage library expressing a large repertoire (approx. 5 x 10(9)) of antibody fragments was used to generate two libraries one enriched for bacteriophage that exhi...