Showing posts with label Blastocystis hominis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blastocystis hominis. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Blastocystis PhD thesis from Iraq

My colleague, Dr Haitham Sedeeq Albakri (Assistant Professor at Department of Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Mosul), recently defended his PhD thesis  on 'Isolation and Genotyping of Blastocystis hominis in Human and Different Animals in Erbil Province'. His work was supervised by Prof Dr Abdul Aaziz Jameel Al-Ani.

Haitham wrote me and asked if I could publish the summary on my website, so here goes:



Blastocystis is an enteric unicellular anaerobic protozoan that presents in the digestive system of the humans and different animal hosts including cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, dogs, cats and birds as well as wild animals. Blastocystis causes digestive system disorders especially the irritable bowel syndrome, while animals are considered as reservoir and infective hosts. In Iraq, few morphological studies related to Blastocystis have been done in human only, but not animals. Therefore, the study aimed to detect the presence of Blastocystis in human and animal hosts, in addition to study the morphological and genetic characteristics of this protozoan. In this present study, a total of 292 stool samples have been examined for the presence of Blastocystis, the samples were distributed as follows: humans 62, cattle 81, sheep 78, dogs 21 and cats 50. Wet mount preparation, trichrome staining and culture methods were used to study the morphological characteristics of Blastocystis. In addition, molecular characteristics have been studied by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using universal primers to detect the presence of the Blastocystis, and subsequently subtyping of positive samples using 10 pairs of subtype-specific primers. Blastocystis also have been characterized by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) method using HinfI. Finally, DNA barcoding method has been used as a more accurate and recommended method for subtyping. The results showed that Blastocystis has been detected using wet mount preparation method in 71 (24.3%) out of 292 samples collected from all hosts including human, cattle, sheep dogs and cats. While 17/62 (27.4%), 19/81 (23.5%), 14/78 (17.9%), 3/21 (14.3%) and 18/50 (36.0%) samples were positive in human, cattle, sheep dogs and cats, respectively. The detection percentages were higher when culture method was used and 98 (33.6%) were positive out of 292 tested samples. While 28/62 (45.2%), 31/81 (38.3%), 25/78 (32.1%), 2/21 (9.5%) and 12/50 (24.0%) samples were positive in human, cattle, sheep dogs and cats, respectively. The molecular methods revealed that all cultured samples were positive using universal primers with product size 1780 bp. While positive samples subtyped using specific primers into ST3a and ST3b in humans, ST5 and ST6 in cattle and ST6 in sheep, ST1a in dogs and ST5 in cats. The RFLP technique classified the Blastocystis into seven genotypes; type I, II and III in humans, type IV, V and VI in cattle and only one type, VII, in sheep. Whereas, DNA barcoding method showed that ST2 and ST3 present in humans, ST14 in cattle and ST5 in sheep, these subtypes represent 9 isolates of Blastocystis sp. that have been successfully submitted to the GenBank of the NCBI, including 4 isolates in human, 2 isolates in cattle and 3 isolates in sheep. In conclusion, this is the first morphological and genetic study of Blastocysts in humans and animal hosts in Iraq. It is also the first time that culture method has been used in Iraq for diagnosis of this protozoan. Additionally, it is the first time that molecular characterization of different local subtypes has been confirmed in Iraq. Further studies are needed to include morphological and genetic characteristics in other animal hosts and to study the relationship between human and animal isolates in different geographical areas in Iraq, in addition to investigate the relation between Blastocystis with irritable bowel syndrome in humans.



I believe that this is the first study to include Blastocystis subtype data from Iraq. I also believe that the thesis was written mostly in Arabic. Dr Albakri's email address is haitham_albakri[at]yahoo.com

Friday, December 30, 2016

This Month in Blastocystis Research (DEC 2016)

I would like to end the year by briefly highlight three of the most important/interesting papers in Blastocystis research published in 2016 (and not co-authored by me).

The first article that comes to my mind is one by Pauline Scanlan and colleagues, who took to investigating the prevalence of Blastocystis in US households (family units). The reason why I'm mentioning this article is not so much due to its approach; it's much more related to the fact that even when molecular methods are used (i.e., highly sensitive methods), the prevalence in this population was only 7%, and the vast majority of Blastocystis carriers were adults. The prevalence is much lower in this population (Colorado) than in a country such as Denmark. I'm interested in knowing the reason for this difference. Are people in Colorado less exposed or are they less susceptible than people in Denmark? I'm also interested in knowing why there was only one child among the carriers... we see similar trends elsewhere: Blastocystis is a parasite that emerges only in adolescence and adulthood. Meanwhile, we see a lot of Dientamoeba in toddlers and smaller children, with more or less all children being infected at some point - at least in Denmark; here, geographical differences may exist as well. Mixed infection with Blastocystis and Dientamoeba in adults is not uncommon, so it's not that they outcompete each other.

Next up, is the article by Audebert and colleagues who published in the Nature-affiliated Scientific Reports on gut microbiota profiling of Blastocystis-positive and -negative individuals. I already made a small summary of the article in this post.

While we gain valuable insight into gut microbiota structure, we also need to know what these microbes are able to do. We need to know about the interaction with the host and how they influence our metabolism. I hope to see more studies emerging on the metabolic repertoire of Blastocystis and how the parasite may be capable of influencing the diversity and abundance of bacterial, fungal and protist species in the gut. What would also be useful is a drug that selectively targets Blastocystis so that we can be able to selectively eradicate the parasite from its niche in order to see what happens to the surrounding microbiota and - if in vivo - to the host.

The last article is authored by my Turkish colleagues Özgür Kurt, Funda Dogruman-Al, and Mehmet Tanyüksel, who pose the rhetorical question: "Blastocystis eradication - really necessary for all?" in the special issue on Blastocystis in Parasitology International. For some time I have been thinking of developing a reply to the authors as a Letter to the Editor with the title "Blastocystis eradication - really necessary at all?" Nevermind, quite similar to what we did back in 2010, the authors review the effect of various drugs that have been used to try eradicate Blastocystis. Moreover, they acknowledge the fact that Blastocystis is often seen in healthy individuals, and that its role in the development of gut microbiota and host immune responses should be subject to further scrutiny. They even suggest that the role of Blastocystis as a probiotic should be investigated. It's great to see clinicians think along these lines, since this is an important step towards expanding the revolution lately seen in Blastocystis research, exemplified by studies such as that by Audebert et al. mentioned above.

So, wishing you all a Happy New Year and a great 2017, I'd like to finish by encouraging you to stay tuned; soon, I will be posting some very... interesting... neeeeeeewwwws...




References:

Audebert C, Even G, Cian A, Blastocystis Investigation Group., Loywick A, Merlin S, Viscogliosi E, & Chabé M (2016). Colonization with the enteric protozoa Blastocystis is associated with increased diversity of human gut bacterial microbiota. Scientific Reports, 6 PMID: 27147260 

Kurt Ö, Doğruman Al F, & Tanyüksel M (2016). Eradication of Blastocystis in humans: Really necessary for all? Parasitology International, 65 (6 Pt B), 797-801 PMID: 26780545

Scanlan PD, Knight R, Song SJ, Ackermann G, & Cotter PD (2016). Prevalence and genetic diversity of Blastocystis in family units living in the United States. Infection, Genetics and Evolution, 45, 95-97 PMID: 27545648

Friday, September 2, 2016

This Month in Blastocystis Research - AUG 2016

Last month, I asked about your thoughts on Blastocystis and age... is age a limiting factor with regard to the susceptibility to infection/colonisation? One of the reasons why I asked is that we and others have noted that Blastocystis becomes more and more common with age... at least until a certain stage in life (adulthood) and at least in certain countries.

Among the answers I got, I'd like to highlight one from Dr Graham Clark, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, with whom I've had the tremendous privilege of working for more than 10 years. Dr Clark writes:

In my opinion, prevalence is a mixture of three things: exposure, immunity and ‘loss’.


To illustrate the latter, infection with Entamoeba histolytica (and probably other Entamoeba species) can be lost spontaneously with a half-life of 13 months (in one study at least, Blessmann et al. 2003 J Clin Micro). There is no evidence that immunity is involved, just chance. Extrapolating to Blastocystis, I suspect the same is true – loss can occur spontaneously but what the half-life of colonisation is we have no idea and it would be difficult to evaluate without high resolution genotyping (which is what we used in E. histolytica). If you had a population of infected individuals that were followed over time and a high res[olution] typing method you could calculate rates of loss and of new infections, as we did for E. histolytica.


I do not think there is any evidence for immunity to Blastocystis infection, which leaves exposure. If the rate of exposure is greater than the rate of spontaneous loss then you would get an increase in prevalence with age. I suspect (hope!) exposure is higher in children for behavioural reasons than in adults so you will get a levelling out of prevalence with age to a point where the rate of new infection balances the rate of spontaneous loss. If exposure stays high then this plateau may not be reached.


So why are other parasites different? Probably there is immunity leading to clearance of the infection in children.
Certainly, we have quite good data from Ireland indicating that once established, Blastocystis will keep colonising the GI tract for ages (i.e., many years). Regarding loss, I hope that I'll soon be able to refer to some data that we have obtained in a study on experimental animals.

Exposure is obvisouly something to think about - Blastocystis is transmitted by ingesting food/drink contaminated with Blastocystis and/or improper hygiene. The fact remains that studies using molecular methods for detection have identified most children in Sub-Saharan African study populations as being colonised, while in more developed countries, parasites such as Dientamoeba fragilis are more common in toddlers and smaller children; Blastocystis emerges and gains in prevalence only in teenagers and older individuals... roughly speaking.

One aspect of colonisation that I've been very interested in myself, is whether it's each individual's gut microbiota that "decides" whether Blastocystis colonisation/infection establishes upon exposure. We are seeing some data emerging from a couple of labs on this, and maybe next month I'll be able to bring you up to speed in this matter. To my knowledge, there is not a lot of precedence–if any–for such a situation, but the fact that we have seen quite clear differences in gut microbiota patterns between those who have Blastocystis and those who have not, has left me thinking...

If you want to contribute to the discussion, please drop a line. 

References:

Blessmann, J., Ali, I., Ton Nu, P., Dinh, B., Ngo Viet, T., Le Van, A., Clark, C., & Tannich, E. (2003). Longitudinal Study of Intestinal Entamoeba histolytica Infections in Asymptomatic Adult Carriers Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 41 (10), 4745-4750 DOI: 10.1128/JCM.41.10.4745-4750.2003

Scanlan PD, Stensvold CR, Rajilić-Stojanović M, Heilig HG, De Vos WM, O'Toole PW, & Cotter PD (2014). The microbial eukaryote Blastocystis is a prevalent and diverse member of the healthy human gut microbiota. FEMS microbiology ecology, 90 (1), 326-30 PMID: 25077936

Monday, August 1, 2016

This Month in Blastocystis Research - Interactive Edition

What are your thoughts on Blastocystis carriage and age?

More and more data suggest that the prevalence of Blastocystis carriage increases by age - at least to a certain point.

Some intestinal parasites, such as Cryptosporidium, may not be that uncommon in infants/very young toddlers, while they are much less common in older children and adolescents. Other parasites appear to peak in prevalence around the age of 7, e.g., Dientamoeba fragilis.

Meanwhile, Blastocystis appear to increase in prevalence by age until mature adulthood... why is that? And what does it tell us? Please comment! I'm not having all the answers to these questions myself, and if some interesting suggestions pop up, I'll post them! You only need a Google account to be able to comment. If you don't have one, please send your comment using

crs[at]blastocystis.net 

For those interested in Blastocystis carriage in association with age, I have listed a couple of relevant recent studies below.

References:

Forsell J, Granlund M, Samuelsson L, Koskiniemi S, Edebro H, & EvengÃ¥rd B (2016). High occurrence of Blastocystis sp. subtypes 1-3 and Giardia intestinalis assemblage B among patients in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Parasites & Vectors, 9 (1) PMID: 27356981  

Poulsen CS, Efunshile AM, Nelson JA, & Stensvold CR (2016). Epidemiological Aspects of Blastocystis Colonization in Children in Ilero, Nigeria. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 95 (1), 175-9 PMID: 27139454

Thursday, May 5, 2016

This Month in Blastocystis Research (APR 2016)

I thought I’d give examples of some of the Blastocystis-related activities in which I was involved in April.

I was lucky to be invited as part of the faculty for this year’s ECCMID conference in Amsterdam. I had an opportunity to give a talk on Detection of protozoans using molecular techniques in routine clinical practice (click link to watch it). I also co-authored a poster with the title Blastocystis colonization correlates with gut bacterial diversity which is one of several studies recently performed by our group that suggest that Blastocystis is a biomarker – or an indicator if you wish – of a healthy gut microbial environment and high gut microbiota diversity. 

This very topic was one of the two major topics of my colleague Lee O’Brien Andersen’s PhD work; Lee just defended his thesis this Friday and being involved in his work is some of the most interesting, rewarding, and challenging professional activities I’ve experienced so far. I will soon provide a link to an electronic version of his thesis here on this site. I hope that we will be able to fund his post doc aiming to expand his work on comparative Blastocystis genomics, since he only just started this work. Also, I hope that we will be able to do much more research on Blastocystis’ impact on host immunity and gut microbiota using in vitro and in vivo models. We need to know much more about to which extent Blastocystis can actually induce changes in bacterial communities and what these changes are. We also need to know whether manipulation of gut bacteria in a Blastocystis carrier can lead to eradication of the organism. 

Last week, I was so fortunate to oversee the production of an e-learning course in faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for Unite European Gastroenterology (UEG), which will probably appear online already in June. FMT is currently used primarily for treating recurrent Clostridium difficile infections, but the application range may extend far beyond this. The presentations included both theoretical and live sessions, and it was a lot of fun to do, not only because of the topic, but also because my colleagues at the Agostino Gemelli University Hospital in Rome were extremely professional, enthusiastic and well-organised. The reason why FMT is interesting in a Blastocystis context includes the fact that while there are quite standardized guidelines as to what is not allowed in donor stool, there is no consensus on what is actually allowed in the stool. Obviously, Blastocystis will often be present in donor stool, and when conventional microbiological methods are used to screen donor stool for pathogens, Blastocystis will only rarely be picked up. Hence recipients may receive stool containing Blastocystis. And so of course we would like to know whether to recommend using or excluding stool positive for Blastocystis (and other common parasites such as Dientamoeba) for FMT.