Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Sep;117(9):2895-2900.
doi: 10.1007/s00436-018-5980-x. Epub 2018 Jun 30.

First report of the isolation of Balamuthia mandrillaris in the northern region of Japan

Kanako Yamanouchi  1 , Hiroaki Arima  2 , Yamato Sakamoto  3 , Kazuki Kanto  3 , Kosuke Kasai  2 , Koichi Ito  2 , Takashi Inaba  2
Affiliations

First report of the isolation of Balamuthia mandrillaris in the northern region of Japan

Kanako Yamanouchi et al. Parasitol Res. 2018 Sep.

Abstract

Balamuthia mandrillaris is a free-living amoeba that lives in soil and water near human settlements. B. mandrillaris was first isolated from a mandrill baboon that died at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Park in California in 1986, and the first human infection was reported in 1990. Although reported B. mandrillaris infections are often not properly characterized, it appears that B. mandrillaris invades the living body from the soil and water, either via a wound or the nasal cavity. Most confirmed infections have originated in South and North America. B. mandrillaris inhabits warm climates and is recognized as a pathogen in warm areas such as desert climates and tropical climates. B. mandrillaris has been isolated from environmental samples since 2000, most of which originated from warm areas such as step climates, tropical climates, and desert climates. However, B. mandrillaris may survive in diverse environments, although fewer granulomatous amebic encephalitis patients have been reported in colder Japanese and Northern European regions. In the present study, we conducted a survey of 13 soil samples in Aomori Prefecture located at the northernmost tip of Japan Honshu and successfully isolated one strain of B. mandrillaris from soil for the first time in Japan. In addition, B. mandrillaris gene was detected from several soils. This confirms that B. mandrillaris is capable of spreading to a wider climatic region.

Keywords: Balamuthia 16S rRNA gene; Balamuthia mandrillaris; Free-living amoeba; Japan; Soil.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Soil sampling place in Japan
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Morphology of amebae isolated from soil. (A) Trophozoites of large amoebae that appeared after 5 days of soil culture. (B-1) Trophozoites of AHB strain in SS medium. (B-2, B-3) AHB strain that formed cysts in SS
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Balamuthia-specific-PCR for isolated amoebae and soil DNA. Lane (1) 100-bp ladder (Nippon Gene, Japan), lane (2) negative control, primer: 5′Balspec 16S and Balspec 16Sr 610, lane (3) sample of AHB strain, Primer: 5′Balspec 16S and Balspec 16Sr 610, lane (4) negative control, primer: 5′Balspec 16S and 3′Balspec 16S, lane (5) sample of AHB strain, primer: 5′Balspec 16S and 3′Balspec 16S, lanes (6, 7, 8) positive sample of soil DNA, primer: 5′Balspec 16S and Balspec 16Sr 610
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alexander L G, Kevin Messacar, Thelma Dunnebacke, Samia N Naccache, Scot Federman, Jerome Bouquet, David Mirsky, Yosuke Nomura, Shigeo Yagi, Carol Glaser, Michael Vollmer, Craig A Press, Bette K Klenschmidt-DeMasters, Samuel R Dominguez, Charles Y Chiu (2015) Clinical metagenomic identification of Balamuthia mandrillaris encephalitis and assembly of the draft genome: the continuing case for reference genome sequencing. Genome Med 7: 113 10.1186/s13073-015-0235-2 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bando Y, Takahashi T, Uehara H, Kagegi T, Nagahiro S, Izumi K. Autopsy case of amebic granulomatous meningoencephalitis caused by Balamuthia mandrillaris in Japan. Pathol Int. 2012;62(6):418–423. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1827.2012.02816.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Baquero RA, Reyes-Batlle M, Nicola GG, Martın-Navarro CM, Lopez-Arencibia A, Guillermo Esteban J, Valladares B, Martınez-Carretero E, Pinero JE, Lorenzo-Morales J. Presence of potentially pathogenic free-living amoebae strains from well water samples in Guinea-Bissau. Pathog Glob Health. 2014;108(4):206–211. doi: 10.1179/2047773214Y.0000000143. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Booton GC, Carmichael JR, Visvesvara GS, Byers TJ, Fuerst PA. Genotyping of Balamuthia mandrillaris based on nuclear 18S and mitochondrial 16S rRNA genes. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2003;68(1):65–69. - PubMed
    1. Cabello-Vílchez AM, Reyes-Batlle M, Montalbán-Sandoval E, Martín-Navarro CM, López-Arencibia AE-L, Guerra HR, Gotuzzo E, Piñero J, Maciver S, Martínez-Carretero E, Valladares B, Lorenzo-Morales J. The isolation of Balamuthia mandrillaris from environmental sources from Peru. Parasitol Res. 2014;113(7):2509–2513. doi: 10.1007/s00436-014-3900-2. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources