|
|
Treatment and drug development against free-living pathogenic amoebae
Jankovcová, Klára-Marie ; Mach, Jan (advisor) ; Vinopalová, Martina (referee)
Free-living pathogenic amoebae are cosmopolitan unicellular eukaryotic organisms, which can cause several serious infections in humans and animals. They are causative agents of amoebic encephalitis, which are very rare and acute diseases of the central nervous system, that almost always lead to the death of the patient. Even though the importance of these pathogens has been increasing in recent years, the development of treatment procedures and drugs against them is very ineffective and unsatisfactory. Treatment and drug development is complicated mainly because of the complex biological structure of pathogens and limited knowledge of metabolic pathways and the biochemical reactions that are occurring in them, which are crucial for the development of effective drugs. In this bachelor thesis I focus on the pathogenic species Naegleria fowleri, Balamuthia mandrillaris and the pathogenic genus Acanthamoeba, which is the causative agent of encephalitis and acanthamoeba keratitis. In the first part of this bachelor thesis, I generally characterize the different representatives of free- living pathogenic amoebae and describe the clinical picture of individual diseases. In the second part I address the issue of treatment. Firstly, I describe current therapeutic options and issues of the treatment of...
|
|
|
Acanthamoeba: A Threat to the Human Eye
Veselá, Kateřina ; Říhová, Dagmar (advisor) ; Škodová, Jana (referee)
This thesis examines unicellular microorganism of the genus Acanthamoeba, as well as the disease it causes - acanthamoeba keratitis. It is an eye disease, which occurs mainly in people using contact lenses. Since acanthamoeba attacks visual apparatus, several parts of the thesis are dedicated to the anatomy of said apparatus, especially to the eye ball. The symptoms, diagnostics, treatment as well as prevention of the disease are included as well. The thesis furthemore mentions individual types of contact lenses, their proper hygiene and care and most of all, the danger, that comes with improper handling - acanthamoeba keratitis. A survey, that took place among elementary school and high school students, found out, that almost none of the elementary school students wear contact lenses, whereas contact lenses are worn by approximately 15% of students at high school. Among other issues, the survey concludes, that only a small part of elementary school students prefers contact lenses to glasses, though glasses are needed by a vast majority of them. At high school level, wearing contact lenses becomes more common, for aesthetics or other reasons. Ophtalmologist is regularly visited by 35 % of interviewed students. An analysis of six different natural science and biology textbooks for the 8th grade of...
|
|
|
Free living amoebae as causative agents of human infections.
Markovičová, Ivana ; Nohýnková, Eva (advisor) ; Doležal, Pavel (referee)
Free living amoebae as causative agents of human infections are world wide occuring organisms with the ability of dual lifestyle both in nature, which is their original habitat, so within host tissue. The aim of this theses is to summarize the basic available knowledge of the pathogenic species Naegleria fowleri and Balamuthia mandrillaris and of the pathogenic genus Acanthamoeba which invade CNS and are causative agents of rare but serious human infections, often leading to death of a patient. The exception of their deathly consequences is an Acanthamoeba keratitis infection in which non curing cases lead to a significant visual impairment and even to visual loss. In each of the chapters, the work is tend to summarize transmision ability, mechanisms of pathogenesis and pathophysiology of these three free living amoebae in order to describe their ability to cause infection.
|
guest ::
