MyMedR

Fulltext Morphological and molecular characteristics of Malayfilaria sofiani Uni, Mat Udin & Takaoka n. g., n. sp. (Nematoda: Filarioidea) from the common treeshrew Tupaia glis Diard & Duvaucel (Mammalia: Scandentia) in Peninsular Malaysia

Uni S, Mat Udin AS, Agatsuma T, Saijuntha W, Junker K, Ramli R, et al.

Parasit Vectors, 2017 Apr 20;10(1):194.

PMID: 28427478 DOI: 10.1186/s13071-017-2105-9

BACKGROUND: The filarial nematodes Wuchereria bancrofti (Cobbold, 1877), Brugia malayi (Brug, 1927) and B. timori Partono, Purnomo, Dennis, Atmosoedjono, Oemijati & Cross, 1977 cause lymphatic diseases in humans in the tropics, while B. pahangi (Buckley & Edeson, 1956) infects carnivores and causes zoonotic diseases in humans in Malaysia. Wuchereria bancrofti, W. kalimantani Palmieri, Pulnomo, Dennis & Marwoto, 1980 and six out of ten Brugia spp. have been described from Australia, Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka and India. However, the origin and evolution of the species in the Wuchereria-Brugia clade remain unclear. While investigating the diversity of filarial parasites in Malaysia, we discovered an undescribed species in the common treeshrew Tupaia glis Diard & Duvaucel (Mammalia: Scandentia).

METHODS: We examined 81 common treeshrews from 14 areas in nine states and the Federal Territory of Peninsular Malaysia for filarial parasites. Once any filariae that were found had been isolated, we examined their morphological characteristics and determined the partial sequences of their mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) and 12S rRNA genes. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products of the internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) region were then cloned into the pGEM-T vector, and the recombinant plasmids were used as templates for sequencing.

RESULTS: Malayfilaria sofiani Uni, Mat Udin & Takaoka, n. g., n. sp. is described based on the morphological characteristics of adults and microfilariae found in common treeshrews from Jeram Pasu, Kelantan, Malaysia. The Kimura 2-parameter distance between the cox1 gene sequences of the new species and W. bancrofti was 11.8%. Based on the three gene sequences, the new species forms a monophyletic clade with W. bancrofti and Brugia spp. The adult parasites were found in tissues surrounding the lymph nodes of the neck of common treeshrews.

CONCLUSIONS: The newly described species appears most closely related to Wuchereria spp. and Brugia spp., but differs from these in several morphological characteristics. Molecular analyses based on the cox1 and 12S rRNA genes and the ITS1 region indicated that this species differs from both W. bancrofti and Brugia spp. at the genus level. We thus propose a new genus, Malayfilaria, along with the new species M. sofiani.

Matched MeSH terms: Filarioidea/anatomy & histology*; Filarioidea/genetics*; Filarioidea/isolation & purification

Nematode parasites of Oceanica. 8. Filariids of birds, with a new genus and four new species

Schmidt GD, Kuntz RE

Parasitology, 1970 Apr;60(2):313-26.

PMID: 5427102

Matched MeSH terms: Filarioidea/anatomy & histology; Filarioidea/classification*; Filarioidea/isolation & purification

Acanthocheilonema delicata n. sp. (Nematoda: Filarioidea) from Japanese badgers (Meles anakuma): description, molecular identification, and Wolbachia screening

Uni S, Bain O, Suzuki K, Agatsuma T, Harada M, Motokawa M, et al.

Parasitol Int, 2013 Feb;62(1):14-23.

PMID: 22926421 DOI: 10.1016/j.parint.2012.08.004

Acanthocheilonema delicata n. sp. (Filarioidea: Onchocercidae: Onchocercinae) is described based on adult filarioids and microfilariae obtained from subcutaneous connective tissues and skin, respectively, of Japanese badgers (Meles anakuma) in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. No endemic species of the genus had been found in Japan. Recently, some filarioids (e.g., Acanthocheilonema reconditum, Dirofilaria spp., and Onchocerca spp.) have come to light as causative agents of zoonosis worldwide. The new species was readily distinguished from its congeners by morphologic characteristics such as body length, body width, esophagus length, spicule length, and the length of microfilariae. Based on the molecular data of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) gene, A. delicata n. sp. was included in the clade of the genus Acanthocheilonema but differed from two other congeneric species available for study, A. viteae and A. reconditum. Acanthocheilonema delicata n. sp. did not harbor Wolbachia. It is likely that the fauna of filarioids from mammals on the Japanese islands is characterized by a high level of endemicity.

Matched MeSH terms: Filarioidea/anatomy & histology; Filarioidea/classification; Filarioidea/genetics*; Filarioidea/microbiology*; Filarioidea/ultrastructure

Fulltext Seasonal Filarial Infections and Their Black Fly Vectors in Chiang Mai Province, Northern Thailand

Aupalee K, Saeung A, Srisuka W, Fukuda M, Streit A, Takaoka H

Pathogens, 2020 Jun 25;9(6).

PMID: 32630410 DOI: 10.3390/pathogens9060512

The transmission of zoonotic filarial parasites by black flies has so far been reported in the Chiang Mai and Tak provinces, Thailand, and the bites of these infected black flies can cause a rare disease-human zoonotic onchocerciasis. However, species identification of the filarial parasites and their black fly vectors in the Chiang Mai province were previously only based on a morphotaxonomic analysis. In this study, a combined approach of morphotaxonomic and molecular analyses (mitochondrial cox1, 12S rRNA, and nuclear 18S rRNA (SSU HVR-I) genes) was used to clarify the natural filarial infections in female black flies collected by using human and swine baits from two study areas (Ban Lek and Ban Pang Dang) in the Chiang Mai province from March 2018 to January 2019. A total of 805 and 4597 adult females, belonging to seven and nine black fly taxa, were collected from Ban Lek and Ban Pang Dang, respectively. At Ban Lek, four of the 309 adult females of Simulium nigrogilvum were positive for Onchocerca species type I in the hot and rainy seasons. At Ban Pang Dang, five unknown filarial larvae (belonging to the same new species) were detected in Simulium sp. in the S. varicorne species-group and in three species in the S. asakoae species-group in all seasons, and three non-filarial larvae of three different taxa were also found in three females of the S. asakoae species-group. This study is the first to molecularly identify new filarial species and their vector black fly species in Thailand.

Matched MeSH terms: Filarioidea

Fulltext Breakdown of coevolution between symbiotic bacteria Wolbachia and their filarial hosts

Lefoulon E, Bain O, Makepeace BL, d'Haese C, Uni S, Martin C, et al.

PeerJ, 2016;4:e1840.

PMID: 27069790 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.1840

Wolbachia is an alpha-proteobacterial symbiont widely distributed in arthropods. Since the identification of Wolbachia in certain animal-parasitic nematodes (the Onchocercidae or filariae), the relationship between arthropod and nematode Wolbachia has attracted great interest. The obligate symbiosis in filariae, which renders infected species susceptible to antibiotic chemotherapy, was held to be distinct from the Wolbachia-arthropod relationship, typified by reproductive parasitism. While co-evolutionary signatures in Wolbachia-arthropod symbioses are generally weak, reflecting horizontal transmission events, strict co-evolution between filariae and Wolbachia has been reported previously. However, the absence of close outgroups for phylogenetic studies prevented the determination of which host group originally acquired Wolbachia. Here, we present the largest co-phylogenetic analysis of Wolbachia in filariae performed to date including: (i) a screening and an updated phylogeny of Wolbachia; (ii) a co-phylogenetic analysis; and (iii) a hypothesis on the acquisition of Wolbachia infection. First, our results show a general overestimation of Wolbachia occurrence and support the hypothesis of an ancestral absence of infection in the nematode phylum. The accuracy of supergroup J is also underlined. Second, although a global pattern of coevolution remains, the signal is derived predominantly from filarial clades associated with Wolbachia in supergroups C and J. In other filarial clades, harbouring Wolbachia supergroups D and F, horizontal acquisitions and secondary losses are common. Finally, our results suggest that supergroup C is the basal Wolbachia clade within the Ecdysozoa. This hypothesis on the origin of Wolbachia would change drastically our understanding of Wolbachia evolution.

Matched MeSH terms: Filarioidea

Mature female filaria, probably Brugia sp., from the conjunctiva of man in West Malaysia

Dissanaike AS, Hock QC, Min TS

Am J Trop Med Hyg, 1974 Nov;23(6):1023-6.

PMID: 4429177

Matched MeSH terms: Filarioidea/isolation & purification*

Ethanol extracts of various helminths in a complement fixation test for eosinophilic lung (tropical eosinophilia)

Pacheco G, Danaraj TJ

Am J Trop Med Hyg, 1963 Sep;12(5):745-7.

PMID: 14070764

Sera taken fortnightly from fourteen patients with eosinophilic lung (tropical eosinophilia) were tested by complement fixation with ethanol extracts of Dirofilaria immitis, Ascaris lumbricoides, Toxocara canis, Gnathostoma procyonis, Fasciola gigantica and Dipylidium caninum. Initially, sera from ten patients had high antibody titers with each of the extracts while antibodies were not detected in sera from the other four; after treatment with diethylcarbamazine the high titers decreased. It is concluded that the reactions obtained with these various extracts do not indicate infection with any particular helminth.

Matched MeSH terms: Filarioidea*

Indirect hemagglutination with extracts of various helminths in eosinophilic lung (tropical eosinophilia)

Pacheco G, Danaraj TJ

Am J Trop Med Hyg, 1966 May;15(3):355-8.

PMID: 5938434

Saline extracts of ether-treated Dirofilaria immitis, Ascaris suum, and Ancylostoma spp. were used in indirect hemagglutination tests of serum from 164 patients with a diagnosis of eosinophilic lung and 114 persons with other diseases or no disease (blood donors). In the first group, positive reactions with one, two or all three antigens were obtained in 89 percent of cases and the titers, at medium or high levels in 77 percent, decreased after treatment with diethylcarbamazine. In the other group, antibodies were demonstrable in the serum of only 22 percent of cases and titers usually were low. These observations indicate the presence of several antigen-antibody systems, some of which appear to be specific. With extracts of Dirofilaria the indirect hemagglutination and the complement-fixation tests were similar in sensitivity and specificity, but the results from neither test appeared to indicate infection with a specific worm.

Matched MeSH terms: Filarioidea/immunology*

Brugia malayi in a cervical smear

Leong AS

Am J Trop Med Hyg, 1976 Jul;25(4):655-6.

PMID: 961988

A microfilaria, identified as that of Brugia malayi, was found in a routine cervical smear from a healthy, 38-year-old female Malaysian aborigine.

Matched MeSH terms: Filarioidea*

Indian cat (Felis indica) as a host to subperiodic Malaysian strain of human Brugia malayi

Murthy PK, Chowdhury TK, Sen AB

J Commun Dis, 1983 Jun;15(2):100-5.

PMID: 6630983

Matched MeSH terms: Filarioidea/pathogenicity*

Brugia tupaiae spn. n. (Nematoda: Filarioidea) in tree shrews (Tupaia glis) from Malaysia

Orihel TC

J Parasitol, 1966 Feb;52(1):162-5.

PMID: 5910449

Matched MeSH terms: Filarioidea/anatomy & histology*; Filarioidea/classification*

Tetrapetalonema dunni sp. n. (Nematoda: Filarioidea) from Malaysian tree shrews

Mullin SW, Orihel TC

J Parasitol, 1972 Dec;58(6):1047-51.

PMID: 4641870

Matched MeSH terms: Filarioidea/classification*

Observations of Breinlia booliati in a new host, Rattus rattus jalorensis, from Kuantan, state of Pahang, Malaysia

Tucker MS, Price DL, Kwa BH, DeBaldo AC

J Parasitol, 2003 Dec;89(6):1220-6.

PMID: 14740913

Breinlia booliati Singh and Ho, 1973 is described from the Malaysian wood rat, Rattus rattus jalorensis Bonhote. The parasites presented here were originally discovered in 1955 in Kuantan, Malaysia, but were not classified until now. On the basis of morphological observations of anatomical structures and comparisons with other species of Breinlia, it was determined that the parasites were B. booliati. The parasites discussed here show slight deviation from B. booliati, but they do not warrant a new species classification. There is some variation in anatomical measurements, the number of male caudal papillae, and the morphology of the microfilariae. Breinlia booliati from a new host is described in this article, with a brief discussion on Rattus species that are hosts of B. booliati and vectors that transmit the parasite. The occurrence of B. booliati in R. r. jalorensis represents the first report of the parasite in this host.

Matched MeSH terms: Filarioidea/anatomy & histology; Filarioidea/classification*

Observations on the survival rate of Armigeres subalbatus after being fed on hosts with different levels of micro-filariae of Brugia pahangi

Chellappah WT

Med J Malaya, 1968 Mar;22(3):240.

PMID: 4386489

Matched MeSH terms: Filarioidea*

The casting of sheaths by microfilariae

Sivanandam S, Sandosham AA

Med J Malaya, 1968 Mar;22(3):238.

PMID: 4234713

Matched MeSH terms: Filarioidea/growth & development*

Studies on the transmission of sub-periodic Brugia malayi by Aedes (Finlaya) togoi in the laboratory. I. The intake and migration of microfilariae