Recent Advances in Acanthamoeba

Dear Colleagues,

Acanthamoeba are one of the most successful and widely distributed organisms on planet earth. Their distribution is almost ubiquitous, and they can be found in nearly every river, lake, and soil sample across the world.

This wide distribution in the environment is attributed to the trophozoites’ ability to survive and replicate at a wide range of temperatures from 4 to 44°C, and their ability to form a dormant highly resistant cyst stage, which is capable of enduring the coldest winters before remerging when conditions improve.

Acanthamoeba are truly amazing organisms and share many characteristics with human macrophages, including a highly conserved phagocytic process and susceptibility to the same pathogens, including Legionella pneumophila. Adaption by L. pneumophila to grow inside Acanthamoeba provides the environmental source of human infection, and similarities between the alveolar macrophage and Acanthamoeba mean that the bacterium is preadapted to survive inside the primary cell of the human innate immune system.

Acanthamoeba are also able to cause a rare but potentially blinding infection of the cornea known as Acanthamoeba keratitis. Acanthamoeba are able to infect the cornea to take advantage of the immune-privileged status of the eye and survive in an environment with a limited adaptive immune response. Their ability to form a highly resistant and metabolically dormant cyst makes corneal infection one of the most difficult and protracted infectious challenges to treat in medical ophthalmology.

The Special Issue entitled "Recent Advances in Acanthamoeba" aims to present recent research on any aspect of Acanthamoeba. Some of its focal points include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. The development of new and improved disinfectants and antimicrobial agents;
2. Human infection;
3. A greater understanding of the biology, environmental distribution, or genetics of Acanthamoeba.

Reviews, original research, and communications will be welcome.

Dr. Wayne Heaselgrave
Guest Editor

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• Acanthamoeba
• free-living amoebae
• contact lenses
• disinfection
• keratitis
• endosymbionts
• antimicrobial