• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.180-192
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• 2024

Free-living amoebae (FLA) are found in diverse environments, such as soils, rivers, and seas. Hence, they can be used as bioindicators to assess the water quality based solely on their presence. In this study, we determined the presence of FLA in river water by filtering water samples collected from various sites and culturing the resulting filtrates. FLA were detected in all the water samples with varying quality grades (Grades I-V). The significant increase in the size of the amoebae population with the deterioration in the water quality. Monoxenic cultures of the amoebae were performed, and genomic DNAs were isolated, among which 18S rDNAs were sequenced to identify the amoeba species. Of the 12 species identified, 10 belonged to the Acanthamoeba genus; of the remaining 2 species, one was identified as Vannella croatica and the other as a species of Vermamoeba. Acanthamoeba was detected in samples with Grades I to VI quality, whereas the Vermamoeba species was present only in Grade I water. V. croatica was found exclusively in water with Grade II quality. Following morphological observations, genomic DNA was sequenced using 16S rDNA to determine whether the species of Acanthamoeba harbored endosymbionts. Most of the isolated Acanthamoeba contained endosymbionts, among which 4 species of endogenous bacteria were identified and examined using transmission electron microscopy. This study provides evidence that the distribution of amoebae other than Acanthamoeba may be associated with water quality. However, further confirmation will be required based on accurate water quality ratings and assessments using a more diverse range of FLA.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.361-366
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• 2000

Genera and number of protozoa were investigated in the conventional activated sludge pilot plant used for the treatment of municipal sewage and pre-treated night soil-containing sewage. In both case, the predominant protozoa was ciliates and among them Vorticella was the most common. In the pilot plant where pre-treated night soil was mixed with municipal sewage, genera of free-swimming ciliates, flagellates and amoeba was higher than in those withour night soil. Correlation analysis on the quality of effluent and protozoa indicates that municipal sewage has positive correlation with protozoa. However in the pilot plan 샐 sewage contatinin pre-treated night coil soil more samples show negative correlation. Followed equations were derived by the regression analysis of BOD in both the pilot plants. In case of pilot plant A of municipal sewage, the analysis B of munici-pal and pre-treated night soil-containing sewage, the analysis of BOD was $6.731$\times$10_{-2}$ $\times$Bodo+0.306(Adjusted $R^2$=0.864). At low temperature, number of protozoa was decreased to 35% and among therm, Aspidisca was the most common genus. Therefore, protozoa can be used as indicator of quality of the effluent in sewage treatment plants.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Clinical Toxicology
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.131-136
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• 2006

Metronidazole is an antimicrobial drug widely used against various types of infectious agents, including protozoa, amoeba, Helicobacter pylori, and anaerobes. Metronidazole may produce some adverse effects on hematologic, immunologic, neurologic and other systems. We report a case of reversible metronidazole-induced encephalopathy. The toxic dose of metronidazole and the onset of encephalopathy were variable. Two patients showed abnormally high signal intensity in the bilateral dentate nucleus of cerebellum, and characteristic abnormalities were detected by brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and T2-weighted images, fluid-attenuated inversion recovery images and/or diffusion weighted imaging (DWI). Discontinuation of metronidazole resulted in the improvement of the neurologic symptoms over a period of two to three weeks. We followed up the brain MRI with DWI in one case following obvious clinical improvement, and the previously detected lesion had disappeared.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.253-258
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• 1984

Experimentally, primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) is induced by Naegleria fowleri in mouse and development of PAM may be inauenced by the strain, weight and sex of mouse, and inoculum size of N. fowleri trophozoite. In this paper, the effect of these factors on PAM development of mouse was studied. N. fowleri trophozoites, strain 0359, were introduced into mouse intranasally under secobarbital anesthesia (0.05mg/g). 1. PAM was developed more frequently in BALB/C mouse than ICR mouse. 2. The survival time of mouse with PAM was influenced by the weight, that is, it was shorter in 15 g mouse than in the heavier groups. 3. No difEerence was observed on PAM development according to sect. 4. In case of inoculated amoeba, PAM incidence of $0.5{\times}10^4$ was markedly decreased.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.569-584
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• 2009

Edge detection in images has been widely used in image processing system and computer vision. Morphological edge detection has used structuring elements with fixed shapes. This paper presents morphological operators with non-fixed shape kernels, or amoebas, which take into account the image contour variations to adapt their shape. Experimental results are analyzed in both qualitative analysis through visual inspection and quantitative analysis with PFOM and ROC curves. The Experiments demonstrate that these novel operators outperform classical morphological operations with a fixed, space-invariant structuring elements for edge detection applications.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.43 no.1 s.133
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• pp.7-13
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• 2005

The taxonomy of Acanthamoeba spp., an amphizoic amoeba which causes granulomatous amoebic encephalitis and chronic amoebic keratitis, has been revised many times. The taxonomic validity of some species has yet to be assessed. In this paper, we analyzed the morphological characteristics, nuclear 18s rDNA and mitochondrial 16s rDNA sequences and the Mt DNA RFLP of the type strains of four Acanthamoeba species, which had been previously designated as A. divionensis, A. parasidionensis, A. mauritaniensis, and A. rhysodes. The four isolates revealed characteristic group II morphology. They exhibited 18S rDNA sequence differences of $0.2-1.1\%$ with each other, but more than $2\%$ difference from the other compared reference strains. Four isolates formed a different clade from that of A. castellanii Castellani and the other strains in morphological group lion the phylogenetic tree. In light of these results, A. paradivionensis, A. divionensis, and A. mauritaniensis should be regarded as synonyms for A. rhysodes.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.280-284
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• 1994

Lack of lysosomal fusion with symbiosomes in symbiont-bearing Amoeba proteus may be due either to the presence of a component in the symbiosome membrane or to the absence of a component needed in the fusion process. Using monoclonal antibody as a probe, lipopolysaccharides were identified as symbiosome-membrane components contributed by symbionts and were found to be exposed on the cytoplasmic side of the membrane. In order to test whether lipopolysaccharides may play a role in the prevention of lysosome-symbiosome fusion, the antilipopolysaccharides antibody was microinjected and processed for double immunostaining in conjuction with anti-lysosome antibody as a lysosome-fusion indicator. Microinjection of the anti-LPS antibody caused symbiosomes to fuse with lysosomes, suggesting that X-bacterial lipopolysaccharides could be 'fusion-preventing' factors.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.59 no.5
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• pp.501-505
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• 2021

The pathogenic free-living amoeba Naegleria fowleri causes primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, a fatal infection, by penetrating the nasal mucosa and migrating to the brain via the olfactory nerves. N. fowleri can induce host cell death via lytic necrosis. Similar to phosphorylation, O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) glycosylation (O-GlcNAcylation) is involved in various cell-signaling processes, including apoptosis and proliferation, with O-GlcNAc addition and removal regulated by O-GlcNAc transferase and O-GlcNAcase (OGA), respectively. However, the detailed mechanism of host cell death induced by N. fowleri is unknown. In this study, we investigated whether N. fowleri can induce the modulation of O-GlcNAcylated proteins during cell death in Jurkat T cells. Co-incubation with live N. fowleri trophozoites increased DNA fragmentation. In addition, incubation with N. fowleri induced a dramatic reduction in O-GlcNAcylated protein levels in 30 min. Moreover, pretreatment of Jurkat T cells with the OGA inhibitor PUGNAc prevented N. fowleri-induced O-deGlcNAcylation and DNA fragmentation. These results suggest that O-deGlcNAcylation is an important signaling process that occurs during Jurkat T cell death induced by N. fowleri.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.291-294
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• 2019

Primary amebic encephalitis (PAM) is a devastating central nervous system infection caused by Naegleria fowleri, a free-living amoeba, which can survive in soil and warm fresh water. Here, a 43-year-old healthy male was exposed to warm freshwater 5 days before the symptom onset. He rapidly developed severe cerebral edema before the diagnosis of PAM and was treated with intravenous conventional amphotericin B while died of terminal cerebral hernia finally. Comparing the patients with PAM who has similar clinical symptoms to those with other common types of meningoencephalitis, this infection is probably curable if treated early and aggressively. PAM should be considered in the differential diagnosis of purulent meningoencephalitis, especially in patients with recent freshwater-related activities during the hot season.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.435-438
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• 2018

Acanthamoeba culbertsoni is the causative agent of granulomatous amoebic encephalitis (GAE), a condition that predominantly occurs in immunocompromised individuals and which is typically fatal. A mannose-binding protein (MBP) among lectins was shown to have strong A. castellanii pathogenic potential when correlated with major virulence proteins. In this study, protective effects were analyzed using the monoclonal antibody to A. culbertsoni MBP by quantification and were also compared with other free-living amoebae. For the amoebial cytotoxicity to the target cell, amoeba trophozoites were incubated with Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. For the protective effects of antibodies, amoebae were pre-incubated with them for 4 h and then added to the target cells. After 24 h, the supernatants were collected and examined for host cell cytotoxicity by measuring lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release. The cytotoxicity of A. culbertsoni to the CHO cells showed about 87.4%. When the monoclonal antibody was pre-incubated with A. culbertsoni, the amoebial cytotoxicity was remarkably decreased as shown at LDH release (1.858 absorbance), which was represented with about 49.9%. Taken together, it suggested that the monoclonal antibody against MBP be important to inhibit the cytotoxicity of A. culbertsoni trophozoites to the target cell. The antibody will be applied into an in vivo functional analysis, which would help to develop therapeutics.