Isolation and identification of Encephalitozoon hellem from an Italian AIDS patient with disseminated microsporidiosis.

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Isolation and identification of Encephalitozoon hellem from an Italian AIDS patient with disseminated microsporidiosis.

APMIS. 1994 Nov;102(11):817-27. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE GENBANK/L19070
Scaglia M; Sacchi L; Gatti S; Bernuzzi AM; Polver P de P; Piacentini I; Concia E; Croppo GP; da Silva AJ; Pieniazek NJ; et al; Laboratory of Clinical Parasitology, Pavia University-IRCCS San; Matteo, Italy.

Abstract: Microsporidia are primitive mitochondria-lacking spore-forming eukaryotic protozoa that infect a wide variety of animals and also humans. Of the five genera (Encephalitozoon, Enterocytozoon, Septata, Nosema and Pleistophora) that cause infections in humans, Enterocytozoon bieneusi, Septata intestinalis, and Encephalitozoon hellem are being increasingly identified in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). E. bieneusi causes gastrointestinal disease, S. intestinalis causes gastrointestinal and disseminated disease, and E. hellem causes ocular as well as disseminated disease. We have established in continuous culture a strain of microsporidia isolated from the urine and throat washings of an Italian AIDS patient and identified it as Encephalitozoon hellem, based on its ultrastructural morphology, antigenic pattern, and polymerase chain reaction-amplified small subunit ribosomal RNA. We believe that this is the first time that a strain of microsporidia has been isolated from the throat washings of a patient with microsporidiosis.

Keywords: Adult Animal AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections/*PARASITOLOGY Base Sequence Cell Line Cercopithecus aethiops DNA Primers Encephalitozoon/GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT/*ISOLATION & PURIF/ ULTRASTRUCTURE Encephalitozoonosis/*COMPLICATIONS/PARASITOLOGY Fluorescent Antibody Technique Human Immunoblotting Italy Microscopy, Electron Microscopy, Electron, Scanning Molecular Sequence Data Pharynx/PARASITOLOGY RNA, Ribosomal/GENETICS Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Vero Cells JOURNAL ARTICLE
950530
M9551011

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