Chacín-Bonilla Leonor
Instituto de Investigaciones Clínicas "Dr. Américo Negrette", Facultad de Medicina, Universidad del Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela.
Invest Clin. 2010 Jun;51(2):239-56.
The history of Entamoeba histolytica is very confuse and shows several wrong concepts about the parasite and its relationship with the host. The poor correlation between the prevalence of asymptomatic and symptomatic amebiasis originated the proposal of three explicative hypothesis, among them was the concept of Brumpt that E. histolytica comprised two morphologically identical species, E. dysenteriae and E. dispar. The application of modern molecular techniques irrefutably proved that E. histolytica was really a complex of two species, confirming the concept of Brumpt almost 7 decades later. Recent studies have identified in humans E. moshkovskii, morphologically indistinguishable from E. histolytica and E. dispar, a great genetic diversity within each of these species, and heterogeneity in virulence among E. histolytica strains. The redescription of E. dispar, and the recovery of E. moshkovskii from humans have had a major impact in our understanding of E. histolytica and amebiasis with important clinical and epidemiologic implications. This has led to the need of a reevaluation of the infection in terms of prevalence and morbidity in the global population and to study the geographic distribution, prevalence, and transmission pattern of E. histolytica strains in order to detect those with epidemiologic relevance and predict the risk of amebic disease in a population.
溶组织内阿米巴的历史非常混乱，存在一些关于该寄生虫及其与宿主关系的错误概念。无症状和有症状阿米巴病患病率之间的低相关性引发了三种解释性假说，其中包括布鲁姆普特提出的溶组织内阿米巴包含两个形态相同的物种，即痢疾内阿米巴和迪斯帕内阿米巴的概念。现代分子技术的应用无可辩驳地证明，溶组织内阿米巴实际上是两个物种的复合体，几乎在70年后证实了布鲁姆普特的概念。最近的研究在人类中发现了莫氏内阿米巴，其在形态上与溶组织内阿米巴和迪斯帕内阿米巴无法区分，这些物种中的每一个都有很大的遗传多样性，并且溶组织内阿米巴菌株之间的毒力存在异质性。迪斯帕内阿米巴的重新描述以及从人类中发现莫氏内阿米巴，对我们理解溶组织内阿米巴和阿米巴病产生了重大影响，具有重要的临床和流行病学意义。这导致需要重新评估全球人群中感染的患病率和发病率，并研究溶组织内阿米巴菌株的地理分布、患病率和传播模式，以便检测出具有流行病学相关性的菌株，并预测人群中阿米巴病的风险。
