Rare Diseases

Biography

Biography: Abdul Matin

Abstract

Free Living Amoebae (FLA) are opportunistic protozoan pathogens and therefore play a predatory role and help to control microbial communities in the ecosystem. On the other hand the ability of pathogenic FLA (Acanthamoeba, Balamuthia and Naegleria) to produce central nervous system infections in human especially is also a growing concern worldwide. There is a single report in literature available regarding Acanthamoeba isolation from environmental sources of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan described by our group last year. Here, we evaluated prevalence of pathogenic FLA from environmental resources like air, soil and water across Pakistan. 121 various water, 78 soil and 30 air samples were examined. FLA was identified by morphological characteristics of their cysts on non-nutrient agar plates seeded with E. coli. Additionally, the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was performed with genus-specific primers followed by direct sequencing of the PCR product for molecular identification. Furthermore, our PCR and sequencing results confirmed different pathogenic and non-pathogenic FLA species. Overall, FLA was recovered from ~52 % of the examined samples. Acanthamoeba was found in 38 and 8 % and Naegleria in 18 and 5% of water and soil samples respectively while Balamuthia was not recovered from any medium. Interestingly Acanthamoeba was recovered on 30 ºC while two Naegleria species were successfully isolated and cultured on both 30 and 42 ºC. This is the first report demonstrating inclusive survey for pathogenic FLA from various environmental sources across Pakistan, which suggests FLA could be a potential threat to public health to which the population is exposed.