Ögren J, Dienus O, Löfgren S, Iveroth P, Matussek A. Dientamoeba fragilis DNA detection in Enterobius vermicularis eggs.
Pathog Dis 2013;
69:157-8. [PMID:
23893951 PMCID:
PMC3908373 DOI:
10.1111/2049-632x.12071]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2013] [Revised: 05/24/2013] [Accepted: 07/15/2013] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Dientamoeba fragilis is an intestinal protozoan suspected of causing gastrointestinal symptoms, and its mode of transmission is unknown, although first described almost a century ago. A hypothesis is that Enterobius vermicularis is a vector for D. fragilis, and recently, D. fragilis DNA was detected within surface-sterilized eggs of E. vermicularis. Using real-time PCR, we detected D. fragilis DNA in 18 (85%) of 21 samples of E. vermicularis eggs collected from patients harbouring D. fragilis in faeces. This finding supports the hypothesis that E. vermicularis may have an important role in the transmission of D. fragilis.
This paper describes a protocol to wash and surface-sterilize E. vermicularis eggs, with the aim of showing presence of both E. vermicularis and D. fragilis specific DNA within, and the results from 20 co-infected patients. The study has merit as a confirmatory study of the trials by Röser et al. (2013), and includes improvements of the protocol.
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