Cellulose in Acanthamoeba Cyst Wall: A Drug Target for Acanthamoeba Infection Treatment

Acanthamoeba is a free-living amoeba that is an opportunistic pathogen of humans and animals. Its prognosis is potentially poor that requires fast diagnosis and successful treatment. There are two phases in its life cycle: an active trophozoite form and the double-walled resistant cyst. This amoebic genus is the causative agent of two severe diseases in humans: Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) and fatal granulomatous amoebic encephalitis (GAE). Acanthamoeba cysts almost remain viable after treatments and lead to serious and frequent recurrence of infection. Resistance of the double walled cysts is mainly due to cellulose molecules presented in the inner layer of the cysts. Thus, cellulose degradation or inhibiting the cellulose synthesis offers a potential strategy for effective treatment of Acanthamoeba. In this non-systematic review we aimed at providing an overview of the cellulose structure, its role in skeletal structure and also physicochemical activity of the protozoa and present it as new drug target for the treatment of amoebic infection. Overall, the degradation of the cyst wall will make amoeba susceptible to chemotherapeutic drugs, and at least inhibition of Acanthamoeba excystment, consequently it prevents the recurrence of infection. Furthermore, cellulose synthesis inhibitors cause current drugs to affect on Acanthamoeba in lower time and concentrations. Therefore, using compounds or drugs that inhibit the synthesis of cellulose can be a new treatment for amoebic infections.