Endosymbiotic Mycobacterium chelonae in a Vermamoeba vermiformis strain isolated from the nasal mucosa of an HIV patient in Lima, Peru

Abstract

In March 2010, a 35 year-old HIV/AIDS female patient was admitted to hospital to start treatment with Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) since during a routine control a dramatic decrease in the CD4(+) levels was detected. At this stage, a nasal swab from each nostril was collected from the patient to include it in the samples for the case study mentioned above. Moreover, it is important to mention that the patient was diagnosed in 2009 with invasive pneumococcal disease, acute cholecystitis, pancreatitis and pulmonary tuberculosis. The collected nasal swabs from both nostrils were positive for Vermamoeba vermiformis species which was identified using morphological and PCR/DNA sequencing approaches. Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) homology and phylogenetic analysis confirmed the amoebic strain to belong to V.vermiformis species. Molecular identification of the Mycobacterium strain was carried out using a bacterial universal primer pair for the 16S rDNA gene at the genus level and the rpoB gene was amplified and sequenced as previously described to identify the Mycobacterium species (Shin et al., 2008; Sheen et al., 2013). Homology and phylogenetic analyses of the rpoB gene confirmed the species as Mycobacterium chelonae. In parallel, collected swabs were tested by PCR and were positive for the presence of V.vermiformis and M.chelonae. This work describes the identification of an emerging bacterial pathogen,M.chelonae from a Free-Living Amoebae (FLA) strain belonging to the species V.vermiformis that colonized the nasal cavities of an HIV/AIDS patient, previously diagnosed with TB. Awareness within clinicians and public health professionals should be raised, as pathogenic agents such as M.chelonae may be using FLA to propagate and survive in the environment.