The relationship between environmental sources and the susceptibility of Acanthamoeba keratitis in the United Kingdom

To determine whether Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) patients have higher rates of Acanthamoeba and free-living amoeba (FLA) colonising domestic sinks than control contact lens (CL) wearers, and whether these isolates are genetically similar to the corneal isolates from their CL associated AK. 129 AK pa...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2020-03, Vol.15 (3), p.e0229681-e0229681
Main Authors: Carnt, Nicole A, Subedi, Dinesh, Connor, Sophie, Kilvington, Simon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acanthamoeba
Amoeba
Bathrooms
Biology and Life Sciences
Chi-square test
Colonization
Contact lenses
Cornea
Coxa
Cytochrome
Cytochrome oxidase
Cytochromes
Domestic water
Drains
E coli
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Escherichia coli
Genes
Isolation
Keratitis
Kitchens
Laboratories
Medicine and Health Sciences
Microscopy
Mitochondria
Optometry
Overflow
Oxidases
Patients
Statistical analysis
Statistical methods
Statistical tests
Water
Water isolates
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:To determine whether Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) patients have higher rates of Acanthamoeba and free-living amoeba (FLA) colonising domestic sinks than control contact lens (CL) wearers, and whether these isolates are genetically similar to the corneal isolates from their CL associated AK. 129 AK patients from Moorefield Eye Hospital, London and 64 control CL wearers from the Institute of Optometry were included in this study. The participants self-collected home kitchen and bathroom samples from tap-spouts, overflows and drains using an instructional kit. The samples were cultured by inoculating onto a non-nutrient agar plate seeded with Escherichia coli, incubated at 32°C and examined for amoebae by microscopy for up to 2 weeks. Partial sequences of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase genes (coxA) of Acanthamoeba isolates from four AK patients were compared to Acanthamoeba isolated from the patient's home. The association between sampling sites was analysed with the chi-square test. A total of 513 samples from AK patients and 189 from CL controls were collected. The yield of FLA was significantly greater in patients' bathrooms (72.1%) than CL controls' bathrooms (53.4%) (p
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0229681