ArticleBMC microbiology2008
Detection of Balamuthia mandrillaris DNA by real-time PCR targeting the RNase P gene.
Article in BMC microbiology, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Rare Case of FatalCase reports in infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Diagnosing Balamuthia mandrillaris amebic meningoencephalitis in a 64-year-old woman from the Southwest of China.Parasites, hosts and diseases · 2023Article
- Various brain-eating amoebae: the protozoa, the pathogenesis, and the disease.Frontiers of medicine · 2021Review
- Encephalomyelitis Caused byFrontiers in immunology · 2021Article
- FatalCase reports in infectious diseases · 2019Article
- Clinical metagenomic identification of Balamuthia mandrillaris encephalitis and assembly of the draft genome: the continuing case for reference genome sequencing.Genome medicine · 2015Article
- Fatal Balamuthia mandrillaris Meningoencephalitis in the Netherlands after Travel to The Gambia.Emerging infectious diseases · 2015Article
- Diagnostics method for the rapid quantitative detection and identification of low-level contamination of high-purity water with pathogenic bacteria.Journal of industrial microbiology & biotechnology · 2013Article
- Balamuthia mandrillaris and Acanthamoeba amebic encephalitis with neurotoxoplasmosis coinfection in a patient with advanced HIV infection.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2012Article
- Diagnosis of infections caused by pathogenic free-living amoebae.Interdisciplinary perspectives on infectious diseases · 2009Article
- Management of granulomatous amebic encephalitis: Laboratory diagnosis and treatment.Tropical parasitologyArticle
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe free-living amoeba Balamuthia mandrillaris may cause fatal encephalitis both in immunocompromised and in - apparently - immunocompetent humans and other mammalian species. Rapid, specific, sensitive, and reliable detection requiring little pathogen-specific expertise is an absolute prerequisite for a successful therapy and a welcome tool for both experimental and epidemiological research.
resultsA real-time polymerase chain reaction assay using TaqMan probes (real-time PCR) was established specifically targeting the RNase P gene of B. mandrillaris amoebae. The assay detected at least 2 (down to 0.5) genomes of B. mandrillaris grown in axenic culture. It did not react with DNA from closely related Acanthamoeba (3 species), nor with DNA from Toxoplasma gondii, Leishmania major, Pneumocystis murina, Mycobacterium bovis (BCG), human brain, various mouse organs, or from human and murine cell lines. The assay efficiently detected B. mandrillaris DNA in spiked cell cultures, spiked murine organ homogenates, B. mandrillaris-infected mice, and CNS tissue-DNA preparations from 2 patients with proven cerebral balamuthiasis. This novel primer set was successfully combined with a published set that targets the B. mandrillaris 18S rRNA gene in a duplex real-time PCR assay to ensure maximum specificity and as a precaution against false negative results.
conclusionA real-time PCR assay for B. mandrillaris amoebae is presented, that is highly specific, sensitive, and reliable and thus suited both for diagnosis and for research.
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