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Isolation of Balamuthia mandrillaris from soil samples in North-Western Iran

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Abstract

Balamuthia mandrillaris is an opportunistic free-living amoebae (FLA) which has been reported as the causative agent of the fatal Balamuthia amoebic encephalitis (BAE). Currently, the transmission dynamics of this pathogen remain poorly understood although the organism has been associated with soils, and thus, soil exposure has been identified as a risk factor for this pathogenic amoeba. Nevertheless, environmental isolation of B. mandrillaris is a rare event and strains of this amoebic species have been isolated from soil and dust sources only in seven previous reports (Iran, Mexico, USA, Peru, Costa Rica, Guinea Bissau, and Jamaica). In Iran, a previous study reported the isolation of B. mandrillaris from dust collected in the city of Tehran and free of known infectious involvement. Therefore, in this work, 55 soil samples collected from public and recreational areas of East Azerbaijan, North-Western Iran, were investigated for the presence of this pathogen. Samples were cultured in 2 % non-nutrient agar plates and were monitored for the presence of B. mandrillaris-like trophozoites and/or cysts. Those samples that were positive for these amoebae by microscopic criteria were then confirmed by PCR amplification and DNA sequencing of the mitochondrial 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) of B. mandrillaris. The obtained results revealed the presence of this emerging pathogen in 5 of 55 samples included in the study. Homology analysis of the obtained DNA sequences revealed high similarity with previously isolated strains from clinical and environmental sources. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the isolation of B. mandrillaris from soil sources in Iran related to human activity and the second time that this pathogen is isolated from the environment in this country.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. This work was also supported by the grants RICET (project no. RD12/0018/0012 of the programme of Redes Temáticas de Investigación Cooperativa, FIS), Spanish Ministry of Health, Madrid, Spain, and the Project FIS PI13/00490 “Protozoosis Emergentes por Amebas de Vida Libre: Aislamiento, Caracterización, Nuevas Aproximaciones Terapéuticas y Traslación Clínica de los Resultados” from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III and Project ref. AGUA3 “Amebas de Vida Libre como Marcadores de Calidad del Agua” from CajaCanarias Fundación. JLM was supported by the Ramón y Cajal Subprogramme from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competivity RYC-2011-08863.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Maryam Niyyati, Seyed Ahmad Karamati & Zohreh Lasjerdi

  2. University Institute of Tropical Diseases and Public Health of the Canary Islands, University of La Laguna, Avda. Astrofísico Fco. Sánchez, S/N, 38203 La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

    Jacob Lorenzo Morales

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  1. Maryam Niyyati
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  2. Seyed Ahmad Karamati
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  3. Jacob Lorenzo Morales
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  4. Zohreh Lasjerdi
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Correspondence to Maryam Niyyati.

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Niyyati, M., Karamati, S.A., Lorenzo Morales, J. et al. Isolation of Balamuthia mandrillaris from soil samples in North-Western Iran. Parasitol Res 115, 541–545 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-015-4770-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-015-4770-y

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