Abstract
BackgroundAlveolar echinococcosis (AE) is a life-threatening human disease caused by Echinococcus multilocularis transmitted between rodents and dogs/foxes in the Northern Hemisphere. The study aims to identify the genetic variation of the parasite in AE patients from China.MethodsE. multilocularis isolates were collected from wild small mammals (n = 6) and AE patients (n = 56) from western China. Genomic DNA was extracted from different tissue samples including paraffin tissue blocks, ethanol fixed tissues and frozen tissues surgically removed. Two mitochondrial gene fragments (526 bp for cob and 474 bp for nad2) of E. multilocularis were amplified and sequenced.ResultsThe parasite fragment sequences of cob fragments from AE patients showed two haplotypes, and nad2 gene fragment sequences had four haplotypes. The gene sequences from Microtus sp. were 100% identical to the sequences of some isolates from AE patients. These haplotypes were distributed in both Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces. Alignment analysis with the sequences from the GenBank databases showed five genotypes including three Asian genotypes, one from Europe and one from North America.ConclusionsMost AE patients harbored the Asian genotype 1 which may be an indication of its relative frequency in the definitive hosts and the environment or of its pathogenicity to humans, which calls for further research.
Highlights
Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is a life-threatening human disease caused by Echinococcus multilocularis transmitted between rodents and dogs/foxes in the Northern Hemisphere
To identify the variation of E. multilocularis in humans, 56 alveolar echinococcosis (AE) tissue samples were collected from AE patients including 20 paraffin blocks for pathological tests, 12 liver tissues fixed in 70% ethanol and 24 liver tissues frozen at -80 °C
Sequence variation among the isolates maintained in laboratory The size of the amplified DNA fragments obtained from E. multilocularis isolates was 526 bp and 474 bp for cob and nad2, respectively (GenBank accession numbers: KT965443–KT965494; KY290762-KY290791)
Summary
Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is a life-threatening human disease caused by Echinococcus multilocularis transmitted between rodents and dogs/foxes in the Northern Hemisphere. The study aims to identify the genetic variation of the parasite in AE patients from China. Echinococcus multilocularis is a fox/dog tapeworm which causes human alveolar echinococcosis (AE). This zoonosis is one of the most lethal infections in humans worldwide [1, 2]. The tapeworm needs two hosts to complete its life-cycle: a definitive host such as a fox or a dog, and a small mammal intermediate host (vole, pika, zokor, hamster, jird etc.) [3]. AE is more severe in humans than cystic echinococcosis which is caused by Echinococcus granulosus. About 95% of AE patients die within ten years in the absence of treatment [2]. Many human AE cases were reported on the Qinghai-Tibet
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