Topic:

Parasitology

Abstract No.:

ISE.131

Title:

Acanthamoeba isolation from natural environment and antibody prevalence among diverse Pakistani tribal population

Author(s):

A. Matin¹, S. Nawaz², M. Arfan³, S. Iram⁴; ¹Institute of Biomedical & Genetic Engineering, IB&GE, Islamabad/PK, ²Institute of Agriculture Sciences, Mycology, Lahore/PK, ³COMSATS University, Environmental Sciences, Abbottabad/PK, ⁴Fatima Jinnah Women University, Environmental Sciences, Rawalpindi/PK

Abstract:

Background: Acanthamoeba is opportunistic protozoan pathogen and is known to be one of the most ubiquitous organisms that can produce keratitis and rare but fatal encephalitis. Human infections due to Acanthamoeba have increased over the year, which is due to presence of Acanthamoeba in the natural environment and have a direct contact with human in routine life. Given the free-living nature of the organisms, it is anticipated that we encounter Acanthamoeba during our daily life. Acanthamoeba has been isolated worldwide but not from Pakistan yet. Here, we evaluated its prevalence in the natural environment of Pakistan and the degree of secretory IgA antibody to Acanthamoeba castellanii of the T4 genotype in mucosal secretions from Pakistani tribal population.
Methods: Acanthamoeba isolation from environmental sources (water, soil and air) was done using plating assay. Acanthamoeba identification was based on the morphology of cyst and trophozoite forms by non-nutrient agar plates seeded with E. coli K12 and PCR amplification with a genus specific primer pair. The presence of anti-Acanthamoeba sIgA in mucosal secretions of Pakistani tribal population (saliva were obtained from healthy individuals) were determined using Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA).
Results: Acanthamoeba was successfully isolated from the water sources of Pakistan during the present study. ELISA demonstrated the presence of Acanthamoeba-specific sIgA in mucosal secretions of different age groups and both genders. A total of 587 samples of 35 tribes, were collected from different age groups ranged from 10 to 60 years. The overall prevalence was >80.8% in males and 63.3% in females. A significant difference was observed between genders. The high level of anti-Acanthamoeba antibodies was observed among the age of 20-30 years. Furthermore prevalence of antibodies was observed high in tribal population of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province as compared to rest of the country. This may be due to some distinctive epidemiological factors involved which contributes to the high degree of prevalence of anti-Acanthamoeba antibody among the gender and KPK tribal population in the country.
Conclusion: Here, we for the first time isolated Acanthamoeba from natural environment of Pakistan and presented the prevalence of anti-Acanthamoeba secretory IgA antibody in mucosal secretions from the Pakistani tribal population.