{"title":"Free-living amoebae: a journey into historical aspects and to current discoveries.","authors":"Helena Lúcia Carneiro Santos","doi":"10.1590/0074-02760240246","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Free-living amoebas (FLA) are ubiquitous protists found in the environment. They have shown exceptional resistance to environmental challenges and play significant roles in controlling microbial populations through their predatory behaviour and microbicidal activity in both soil and aquatic ecosystems environments. However, although rare, a limited group of FLA can cause serious infections in the central nervous system and other diseases, particularly in immunocompromised individuals with high mortality rates. They can also cause keratitis in otherwise healthy individuals. This review offers a comprehensive overview of freshwater naked amoebae but does not cover all aspects in detail. Its goal is to provide a historical context for our current understanding while addressing the most critical elements of FLA biology, their pathogenic potential, and their interactions with important human pathogens.</p>","PeriodicalId":18469,"journal":{"name":"Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz","volume":"120 ","pages":"e240246"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11852317/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1590/0074-02760240246","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PARASITOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Free-living amoebas (FLA) are ubiquitous protists found in the environment. They have shown exceptional resistance to environmental challenges and play significant roles in controlling microbial populations through their predatory behaviour and microbicidal activity in both soil and aquatic ecosystems environments. However, although rare, a limited group of FLA can cause serious infections in the central nervous system and other diseases, particularly in immunocompromised individuals with high mortality rates. They can also cause keratitis in otherwise healthy individuals. This review offers a comprehensive overview of freshwater naked amoebae but does not cover all aspects in detail. Its goal is to provide a historical context for our current understanding while addressing the most critical elements of FLA biology, their pathogenic potential, and their interactions with important human pathogens.
期刊介绍：
Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz is a journal specialized in microbes & their vectors causing human infections. This means that we accept manuscripts covering multidisciplinary approaches and findings in the basic aspects of infectious diseases, e.g. basic in research in prokariotes, eukaryotes, and/or virus. Articles must clearly show what is the main question to be answered, the hypothesis raised, and the contribution given by the study.
Priority is given to manuscripts reporting novel mechanisms and general findings concerning the biology of human infectious prokariotes, eukariotes or virus. Papers reporting innovative methods for diagnostics or that advance the basic research with these infectious agents are also welcome.
It is important to mention what we do not publish: veterinary infectious agents research, taxonomic analysis and re-description of species, epidemiological studies or surveys or case reports and data re-analysis. Manuscripts that fall in these cases or that are considered of low priority by the journal editorial board, will be returned to the author(s) for submission to another journal.
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