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Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 79(2), 2008, pp. 245-247
Copyright © 2008 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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SHORT REPORT


Genetic Analysis of Echinococcus multilocularis Originating from a Patient with Alveolar Echinococcosis Occurring in Minnesota in 1977

Hiroshi Yamasaki*, Minoru Nakao, Kazuhiro Nakaya, Peter M. Schantz, AND Akira Ito
Department of Parasitology and Animal Laboratory for Medical Research, Asahikawa Medical College, Asahikawa, Japan; Division of Parasitic Diseases, National Center for Zoonotic, Vectorborne and Enteric Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia

 

ABSTRACT

To date, only a single proven case of autochthonous human alveolar echinococcosis has been recorded in Minnesota in 1977. At that time, echinococcal lesions removed from the patient were experimentally inoculated into voles, and the parasite materials obtained from the voles were preserved as histopathologic specimens for 30 years. In this study, retrospective genetic analysis of larval Echinococcus multilocularis originating in the human case was performed using the histopathologic specimens. DNA was extracted from the hematoxylin and eosin–stained specimens, and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (cox1) was amplified by polymerase chain reaction. Subsequently, 20 small fragments (100~216 bp) covering almost the entire sequences (97%) of the cox1 were successfully amplified, and the nucleotide sequence analysis showed that the E. multilocularis isolate from Minnesota was almost identical to an isolate from South Dakota rather than isolates from contiguous Alaska.

Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) in humans is a potentially lethal parasitic disease caused by the larval stage (metacestode) of the fox tapeworm, Echinococcus multilocularis and occurs in most of the northern hemisphere, including central Europe, most of northern and central Eurasia, and parts of North America.1 The metacestode proliferates like a tumor in various organs, mainly liver, and develops into multivesiculated lesions. Clinical symptoms such as jaundice, epigastric pain, fatigue, and/or hepatomegaly may appear after an asymptomatic period of 5–15 years, and treatment may be difficult despite a variety of surgical and chemotherapeutic approaches.2

In North America, E. multilocularis is distributed in two distinct geographic regions: the northern tundra zone (western Alaska, Arctic islands such as St. Lawrence Island, and Canadian Arctic Archipelago), and northern central America, including three provinces of Canada and 13 contiguous states of the United States.1,3,4 In Alaska, the tapeworm infections are perpetuated in a sylvatic cycle with carnivores, mainly arctic foxes (Alopex lagopus), red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) as definitive hosts, and small rodents such as voles (Microtus oeconomus) and brown lemming (Lemmus trimucronatus) as intermediate hosts.3 Domestic dogs can also harbor the tapeworm. In central North America, red foxes, grey foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), and coyotes (Canis latrans) as definitive hosts and red-backed voles (Clethrionomys rutilus), meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus), bushy-tailed woodrat (Neotoma cinerea), and deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) as intermediate hosts are involved in the completion of the parasitic cycle.4

Regarding human AE in North America, 73 cases were reported between 1951 and 1993: 71 were in Alaskan Eskimos,5 and 2 cases were from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 19376 and Minnesota in 1977.7,8 Regarding genotypes of E. multilocularis isolated from humans, there is no information about genotypes of E. multilocularis from the United States, although a few isolates from Canada have been genetically examined.9,10

In this study, to examine the genotype of E. multilocularis originating from the AE patient reported in Minnesota in 1977,7 mitochondrial DNA analysis was performed using archival specimens prepared at that time. The case was autochthonous to Minnesota, and the patient was a 56-year-old woman. The patient complained of epigastric discomfort and malaise and was first suspected to have a malignancy. However, the clinical, serologic, and pathologic findings led to the diagnosis of AE. In addition, the identification of E. multilocularis was confirmed by metacestodes developed in red-backed voles (C. rutilus) inoculated intraperitoneally with tissue from the hepatic lesions of the patient. The parasite materials obtained from the voles were processed for histopathology and were preserved as hematoxylin and eosin (HE)-stained specimens for the past 30 years.

Template DNAs for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were prepared by the method described previously11: the HE-stained sections were rinsed in xylene after removal of coverslips, washed in absolute ethanol, and air dried. At first, 10 µL of 0.05 N NaOH solution was placed onto some sections, and the sections were scalped, collected into Eppendorf tubes, and heated at 95°C for 1 hour. As an alternative method, a DNA Isolator PS kit (Wako Pure Chemicals, Osaka, Japan) was used for DNA extraction from the remaining sections. The PCR amplification of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (cox1) was performed in a 50-µL reaction mixture as reported previously.12 Primer pairs used are shown in Table 1Go. F17 was used in combination with both R17 and R18. F20 was used with R18. The reaction was performed for 35 cycles of denaturation (94°C, 30 seconds), annealing (58°C, 30 seconds), and extension (72°C, 90 seconds) with a thermal cycler (GeneAmp 9700; PE Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA). Direct DNA sequencing for the PCR amplicons was performed using a BigDye Terminator v. 3.1 Cycle Sequencing ready reaction kit (Applied Biosystems). Resultant sequence ladders were read with an ABI PRISM 310 or 3100 Genetic Analyzer (Applied Biosystems).


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TABLE 1.
PCR primer pairs used in this study
 
Because the E. multilocularis specimens used were fixed in formalin, and very limited amounts of the sections were available, only 20 small fragments (100~216 bp) were amplified (data not shown). Unfortunately, amplification of two regions using F1/R1 and F3/R3 primer pairs was not successful because of the lack of DNA sample and positions 1–23 and 175–207 were not determined. The total number of nucleotide sites determined from the 20 cox1 fragments was 1,552. Of these sites, 11 were substituted compared with known cox1 sequences of E. multilocularis isolates (Table 2Go). The nucleotide sequences between two isolates from Minnesota and South Dakota were the same except for a nucleotide at position 688: C for Minnesota and T for South Dakota (Table 2Go). There were nine transitional substitutions between isolates from Minnesota and Alaska. Higher sequence homologies were shown with E. multilocularis from South Dakota (99.9%) compared with E. multilocularis from contiguous Alaska and from Japan (99.4%), indicating that E. multilocularis isolates from Minnesota and South Dakota belong to the same genotypic group.


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TABLE 2.
Base-substituted sites in cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 genes among six E. multilocularis isolates
 
There are some reports on genotypes of E. multilocularis isolates from Alaska and contiguous Canada and the United States; however, the number of E. multilocularis genotypes is variable (1–4) depending on the target genes and number of specimens examined.9,10,13,14 The Minnesota isolate reported here seems to be identical to the genotype from Montana and Canada based on geographic locations.

Despite the widespread occurrence and high prevalence of E. multilocularis infections in definitive hosts in North America,4,15–17 human cases seem to be few compared with the number of AE patients reported from Japan18 and Europe,19–21 where the prevalence of the E. multilocularis infection in definitive hosts is also high. In the extensive Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Canada where E. multilocularis is endemic in definitive host animals,4 cases of human AE have never been reported. To date only two cases of AE were diagnosed in the contiguous north-central region of Canada and the United States.6,7 The reasons are not fully understood; however, human behavioral factors21 and life cycles of the parasite involving synanthropic or sylvatic transmission4,18 may be hypothesized. Genetic variations9,10,13,14 and biological attributes22 among E. multilocularis isolates and immunogenetic factors in humans23–28 might play some roles in infectivity of E. multilocularis to humans. Because there are limited data on genotypes/haplotypes of E. multilocularis from North America except for Alaska, the data reported here may also provide useful information in considering the phylogeography of E. multilocularis.29,30

Received January 11, 2008. Accepted for publication May 11, 2008.

Financial support: This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (14256001; 17256002) and Infection Matrix Special Fund from the Ministry of Education, Japan, to AI. The nucleotide sequence data reported in this paper are available in the DDBJ/GenBank/EMBL databases under accession numbers AB353729 and AB374425.

* Address correspondence to Hiroshi Yamasaki, Department of Parasitology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Toyama 1-23-1, Shinjukuku, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan. E-mail: hyamasak{at}nih.go.jp Back

Authors’ addresses: Hiroshi Yamasaki, Department of Parasitology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Toyama 1-23-1, Shinjukuku, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan, Tel: 81-3-5285-1111. ext. 2200, Fax: 81-3-5285-1173, E-mail: hyamasak{at}nih.go.jp. Minoru Nakao, Department of Parasitology, Asahikawa Medical College, Midorigaoka Higashi 2-1-1-1, Asahikawa 078-8510, Japan, Tel: 81-166-68-2423, Fax: 81-166-68-2429, E-mail: nakao{at}asahikawa-med.ac.jp. Kazuhiro Nakaya, Animal Laboratory for Medical Research, Asahikawa Medical College, Midorigaoka Higashi 2-1-1-1, Asahikawa 078-8510, Japan, Tel: 81-166-68-2683, Fax: 81-166-68-2679, E-mail: nky48{at}asahikawa-med.ac.jp. Peter M. Schantz, Division of Parasitic Diseases, National Center for Zoonotic, Vectorborne and Enteric Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4700 Buford Highway, Atlanta, GA 30341, Tel: 1-770-488-7767, Fax: 1-770-488-7761, E-mail: pms1{at}cdc.gov. Akira Ito, Department of Parasitology, Asahikawa Medical College, Midorigaoka Higashi 2-1-1-1, Asahikawa 078-8510, Japan, Tel: 81-166-68-2420, Fax: 81-166-68-2429, E-mail: akiraito{at}asahikawa-med.ac.jp.

 

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