Rozo-Montoya Nicolas, Bedoya-Urrego Katherine, Alzate Juan F
Centro Nacional de Secuenciación Genómica CNSG, Sede de Investigación Universitaria-SIU, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia.
Departamento de Microbiología y Parasitología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia.
Food Waterborne Parasitol. 2023 Sep 23;33:e00210. doi: 10.1016/j.fawpar.2023.e00210. eCollection 2023 Dec.
Intestinal parasites continue to pose a significant threat to human health worldwide, particularly among children. Contaminated water and soil serve as major transmission vehicles for these parasites and intestinal protists are among the most prevalent parasites in both developed and developing nations. Traditionally, parasites have been studied using human or animal fecal samples, while studying them in environmental samples has been challenging due to technical limitations. However, advancements in Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) and bioinformatic approaches now enable the detection of parasite DNA in environmental samples. In this study, we applied a metataxonomic and phylogenetic strategy to detect and classify DNA of protists present in sewage sludge from two major cities in Colombia: Medellin and Cali. We successfully detected several human pathogenic parasites including , and sp., among other protists, in all sludge samples examined. We also investigated the entry and exit of parasite DNA from the San Fernando wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). We observed a higher number of parasite DNA sequences in the plant's influent wastewater, but we also detected the discharge of DNA from pathogenic parasites in both effluent waters and biosolids.
肠道寄生虫继续在全球范围内对人类健康构成重大威胁，尤其是在儿童中。受污染的水和土壤是这些寄生虫的主要传播媒介，肠道原生生物是发达国家和发展中国家中最普遍的寄生虫之一。传统上，寄生虫是通过人类或动物粪便样本进行研究的，而由于技术限制，在环境样本中研究它们一直具有挑战性。然而，下一代测序（NGS）和生物信息学方法的进步现在使得能够在环境样本中检测寄生虫DNA。在这项研究中，我们应用了一种宏分类学和系统发育策略来检测和分类来自哥伦比亚两个主要城市麦德林和卡利的污水污泥中存在的原生生物DNA。在所有检测的污泥样本中，我们成功检测到了几种人类致病寄生虫，包括 、 和 属等其他原生生物。我们还调查了圣费尔南多污水处理厂（WWTP）中寄生虫DNA的进出情况。我们在该厂的进水废水中观察到了更多的寄生虫DNA序列，但我们也在出水和生物固体中检测到了致病寄生虫DNA的排放。
