Clinical course of Acanthamoeba keratitis by genotypes T4 and T8 in Hungary

Abstract

Genus Acanthamoeba is an opportunistic protozoan that is widely distributed in the environment. Within this genus, numerous species are recognized as human pathogens, potentially causing Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK). AK is a corneal disease, associated predominantly with contact lens (CL) wear; its epidemiology is related to the specific Acanthamoeba genotypes. This study reports seven CL wearer, Acanthamoeba PCR-positive patients with AK, diagnosed between January 2015 and 2018. Patients had the diagnosis of AK 1.36 months after first symptoms. Genotyping allowed the identification of six isolates of the T4 and one of the T8 genotypes. At first presentation, pseudendritiformic epithelopathy/dirty epithelium (four eyes, 57.1%), multifocal stromal infiltrates (five eyes, 71.4%), ring infiltrate (three eyes, 42.8%), and perineuritis (one eye, 14.3%) were observed. AK was healed without later recurrence in two eyes (28.5%) using triple-topical therapy, in three eyes (42.8%) following additional penetrating keratoplasty. In one patient (14.3%), AK recurred following successful application of triple-therapy and was treated successfully with repeated triple-topical therapy and in one patient (14.3%), no follow-up data were available after diagnosis. We could not observe correlation of genotype and clinical course or the necessity of corneal transplantation in our case series.

The Effect of Anti-Amoebic Agents and Ce6-PDT onAcanthamoeba castellaniiTrophozoites and Cysts, In Vitro

“…50 It should be also noticed that, in our study, only one Acanthamoeba isolate was analyzed, and it cannot be excluded that other Acanthamoeba genotypes may respond to the tested drugs in a different way. 51 Experiments are ongoing in our laboratories to address this issue.…”

Genotyping of Acantamoeba spp. from rhisophere in Hungary

“…Contrary to data on Acanthamoeba infections in humans, little is known about infections in rhizosphere. It has been concluded that the rhizosphere isolates are most closely related to strains commonly isolated from human infections, especially AK [25][26][27][28][29].…”

Distribution and Current State of Molecular Genetic Characterization in Pathogenic Free-Living Amoebae

“…The T4 is commonly described in GAE cases; however, other genotypes such as T1, T2, T5, T10, T12, and T18 have been related to this disease [ 9 ]. In Table 2 , the classification is broken down into the representative strains; the current distribution of genotypes and morphology worldwide of the Acanthamoeba spp., including those isolated from clinical cases and environmental samples, can be seen in Figure 2 [ 6 , 44 , 50 , 52 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 ]. Finally, the recent cases in databases are described in Table 3 .…”