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J Med Microbiol 58 (2009), 503-508; DOI: 10.1099/jmm.0.005462-0
© 2009 Society for General Microbiology
ISSN 0022-2615

Novel model for the in vivo study of central nervous system infection due to Acanthamoeba spp. (T4 genotype)

Parisa Nakhostin Mortazavi1, Graham Goldsworthy1, Ruth Kirk2 and Naveed Ahmed Khan1,3

1 School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK

2 School of Life Sciences, Kingston University, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, UK

3 School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington, England, UK

Correspondence
Naveed Ahmed Khan
naveed.khan{at}nottingham.ac.uk

Received July 28, 2008
Accepted December 22, 2008

In this study it was shown for what is believed to be the first time that the African migratory locust can be used as a model for the study of Acanthamoeba pathogenesis. Mature adult locusts were injected intra-abdominally with 10 µl suspension of 106 Acanthamoeba (a clinical isolate of the T4 genotype) in culture medium, or with the same volume of sterile culture medium. Locusts injected with Acanthamoeba showed significant weight loss and reduced production of faeces compared with control locusts. Furthermore, injection of amoebae killed all of the locusts within 17 days at room temperature, although the speed of kill was temperature and dose dependent. When samples of faecal pellets and various tissues of infected locusts were cultured on non-nutrient agar plates containing bacterial lawns, live amoebae were recovered from haemolymph, flight muscle and fat body samples, but not from faeces. When brains dissected from locusts were incubated with an anti-amoebic drug (100 µM chlorhexidine) to kill extracellular amoebae, and then washed, homogenized and cultured on bacteria-seeded non-nutrient agar plates, only lysates from amoebae-infected locusts were positive for Acanthamoeba. This strongly suggests that amoebae invade the locust brain and, indeed, trophozoites of Acanthamoeba could be identified within the brain in histological sections of brains from infected locusts, but not from uninfected locusts. These findings support the view that locusts can be used as a model for the study of Acanthamoeba pathogenesis in vivo.

Abbreviations: CNS, central nervous system.






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