Abstract
Acanthamoeba act as hosts for various microorganisms and pathogens, causing Acanthamoeba Keratitis (AK). To investigate the association between endosymbionts and AK progression, we performed a metagenomics study to characterize the intracellular microbiome from five lenses associated with AK isolates and standard strains to characterize the role of ocular flora in AK progression. The used clinical isolates were axenic cultured from lenses associated with AK patients. AK isolates and standard controls such as 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing techniques were used for analysis. The microbiome compositions and relative abundance values were compared. The orders of Clostridiales and Bacteroidales presented major populations of intracellular microbes belonging to all isolates. Comparison of the different source isolates showed that most of the abundance in keratitis isolates came from Ruminococcus gnavus (121.0 folds), Eubacterium dolichum (54.15 folds), Roseburia faecis (24.51 folds), and Blautia producta (3.15 folds). Further analysis of the relative abundance data from keratitis isolates showed that Blautia producta was positively correlated with the disease course. In contrast, Bacteroides ovatus was found to be abundant in early-stage keratitis isolates. This study reveals the abundant anaerobic Gram-positive rods present in severe keratitis isolate and characterize the association between Acanthamoeba and ocular flora in AK progression.
Highlights
Acanthamoeba is a free-living amoebae (FLA) that can be found in moist environments, such as in tap water and human nasopharyngeal mucosa [1,2]
The clinical isolates belonged to Acanthamoeba castellanii strain T4 and contained axenic culture from Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) patients, who were assessed at Cheng Kung
Of the five clinical isolates, three (NCKUH-A, B, and C) were isolated from patients who received medically successful AK treatment, whereas two (NCKUH-D and H) were from patients who had surgery owing to poor progression of AK
Summary
Acanthamoeba is a free-living amoebae (FLA) that can be found in moist environments, such as in tap water and human nasopharyngeal mucosa [1,2]. The association between endosymbionts and their hosts can be either temporary or steady Since such “Trojan horses” can escape the intracellular killing of Acanthamoeba, these microbes could be protected from harmful environments, such as ocular immune killing [8]. Previous studies demonstrated that Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an important endosymbiont of Acanthamoeba and that it usually infects concurrently with AK [9]. Some pathogens such as Mimivirus can acquire genes from the ameba host [10]. These genes can be exchanged and subsequently produced by endosymbionts [11], suggesting the role of Acanthamoeba in microorganism evolution. In vitro and in vivo studies of cytopathic effect (CPE)
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