Naegleria fowleri is a thermophilic, free-living ameba that causes primary amebic meningoencephalitis. The infections are nearly always fatal. We present the third well-documented survivor of this infection in North America. The patient's survival most likely resulted from a variety of factors: early identification and treatment, use of a combination of antimicrobial agents (including miltefosi...

Amebae of Naegleria gruberi transform into flagellates whose basal bodies have the typical centriole-like structure. The amebae appear to lack any homologous structure, even during mitosis. Basal bodies are constructed during transformation and, in cells transforming synchronously at 25 degrees C, they are first seen about 10 min before flagella are seen. No structural precursor for these basal...

Naegleria fowleri (N fowleri), the freshwater amoeba known to cause primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), is historically found in southern United States and Central America. Increased incidence of this rare, deadly, often misdiagnosed illness northern states causes concern that N expanding northward due climate change, posing a greater threat human health new regions where PAM has not yet...

This year the meeting included again a wide variety of topics. Beside ‘typical’ ones like malaria (Rothe) or actual aspects concerning vaccinations (Burchard, Kling) other lecturers reported about international aid in case catastrophies (Schad), polar regions (Kohlberg), volcano tourism (Heggie), diving medicine (Koonen and Schröder), rare diseases naegleria even work space (Ewald). A session f...

Highly pathogenic strains of Naegleria fowleri activate the alternative complement pathway but are resistant to lysis. In contrast, weakly pathogenic and nonpathogenic Naegleria spp. activate the complement pathway and are readily lysed. The present study was undertaken to determine whether surface components on amoebae accounted for resistance to complement lysis. Enzymatic removal of surface ...

Primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) due to Naegleria fowleri was detected in a 36-year-old, Indian countryman who had a history of taking bath in the village pond. He was admitted in a semi comatosed condition with severe frontal headache, neck stiffness, intermittent fever, nausea, vomiting, left hemiparesis and seizures. Computerized tomography (CT) scan of brain showed a soft tissue no...

Exposure of axenic cultures of the amoeboflagellate Naegleria gruberi EGs to the thymidine analogue 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) resulted in the induction of virus-like particles (VLP) and various structures associated with their development and presumed transmission. Previously, VLP induction could be accomplished only by growing amoebae in the presence of living bacteria as a food source. A...

The amoeboid locomotion of the soil protozoon Naegleria gruberi has been studied using reflexion-interference microscopy. Two types of contact are made with a planar glass substrate. One, formed at a considerable distance from the substrate in deionized water (congruent to 100 nm) has been termed 'associated contact' and usually involves a considerable surface area (of the order of 100 micromet...

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The aim of this study was to investigate the activity of diosgenin against Naegleria fowleri trophozoites at the cellular and molecular levels. Diosgenin (100 μg/ml; 241.2 μM) had a 100% inhibitory effect on N. fowleri trophozoites (5 x 10(5) cell/ml). Scanning electron micrograph revealed diosgenin decreased the number of sucker-like apparatuses and food cup formation among N. fowleri trophozo...