Parasitic amoeba eats live cells

Like something about of a bad sci-fi/horror movie, a team of researchers at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia caught a parasitic amoeba in the act of chewing away at both red blood and stomach cells.  While this parasitic amoeba is nothing new to the scientific community, for many years, scientists thought that this intense intestinal parasiteâ€"named Entamoeba histolyticaâ€"destroyed human tissues using toxic molecules before consuming them.

The UV team, led by internist William Petri, discovered otherwise.  In fact, the research team just published their complete finding s in Nature today.  They have discovered exactly how this sinister single-cell assassin causes dysentery and wreaks havoc on intestinal tracts for months and even years in some cases.

Entamoeba histolytica

This parasitic amoeba was filmed under a microscope biting off miniscule pieces of intestine, chewing them for a bit and then spitting them out again instead of digesting them.  Mind you, this particular parasitic amoeba doesn’t kill cells first it just takes bites out of them live until the cell dies a slow death.

The parasitic amoeba can tear down entire intestinal walls with this nibbling method named trogocytosis.  Petri and pals took the single-cell slaughterer’s name from the Greek trogo, or “to nibble.”  It might sound “cute” but the research team assures everyone otherwise.

Just why this parasitic amoeba uses this method to do its dirty deed in uncertain.  The microbiologists note that parasites have different methods of mayhem to upset stomachs.  For example, cholera and E. coli employ toxins while othersâ€"such as the brain-eating amoeba damages tissue using such weapons causing inflammation or hoarding nutrients.

This particular parasitic amoeba is still very much a mystery in terms of motives and goals.  One popular hypothesis among the investigative team is that the nibbling “creates a more spacious environment” that allows the amoeba to more easily “invade the intestine.”  The scientists hope their report will lead to the discovery of new medications for fighting the parasitic amoeba.

Unfortunately, they state that “(u)nlike brain-eating amoebae, this parasite is common.”  It is responsible for literally millions of colitis and dysentery cases every year in developing countries and tropical regions.

(Image courtesy of Katy Ralston)