Abedi B, Azadi D, Hajihossein R, Khodashenas S, Ghaffari K, Mosayebi M. Isolation and molecular identification of
Acanthamoeba spp. from hospital dust and soil of Khomein, Iran, as reservoir for nosocomial infection.
Parasite Epidemiol Control 2021;
15:e00224. [PMID:
34584991 PMCID:
PMC8456014 DOI:
10.1016/j.parepi.2021.e00224]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2020] [Revised: 08/04/2021] [Accepted: 09/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Background
Acanthamoeba spp. are commonest opportunistic amoebae, which ubiquitous in various environmental resources. Acanthamoeba species are the causative agents of amoebic keratitis, granulomatous amoebic encephalitis and i.e. in immunocompromised and immunocompetent patients. Moreover Acanthamoeba spp. can act as reservoir and transmission agent of bacterial pathogens. Due to this issue the aim of this study was to characterized Acanthamoeba spp. genotypes in dust and soil of hospital samples from Khomein of Iran.
Methods
In a cross sectional study, a total of 100 soil and dust samples were collected from hospital environment of Khomein Iran, and analyzed for the presence of Acanthamoeba spp. based on phenotypic and molecular methods including PCR amplification and sequence analysis of 18SrRNA. A total of 5 Acanthamoeba isolates were sequenced, and different genotypes of isolates were detected via direct sequence analysis.
Results
The results showed that 20% of samples (20/100) were positive for Acanthamoeba, while only 5 cases were successfully cultured in NNM medium and were subjected to molecular assay. A. lenticulata, A. castellanii and A. quina were the prevalent identified species that were belonged to T4 and T5 genotypes.
Conclusions
Acanthamoeba spp. are the most prevalent free living amoeba in the dust and soil of hospital environment. Moreover, due to the presence of potentially pathogenic T4 genotypes in our hospital, it is recommended that in health and hygienic programs elimination of FLA should be considered.
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