Morphological Evaluation of Lophomonas blattarum from Human Clinical Reports in Peru. Really are Lophomonas sp.?

Abstract

Lophomonas sp. are anaerobic protists that live in the intestines of cockroaches and termites. However, it has been postulated that these protists enter humans and cause lung infections. There are two species of Lophomonas, L. striata and L. blattarum. Our objective was to conduct a review of articles based on databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, and Scielo. Only five clinical reports have been published in Peru. Three of them are photomicrograph descriptions by Rito Zerpa in the department of Chiclayo, and the last two are clinical cases. We analyzed the images and videos provided by the articles published in Peru. The clinical reports published by Peruvian authors have been incorrect in their description of Lophomonas, primarily due to misidentification. We believe there is a confusion in the morphological description of Lophomonas sp., and it is confused with human ciliated cells. There is no documentation specifically demonstrating the clinical picture attributed to Lophomonas sp. Molecular testing is still being indicated. Unfortunately, we do not yet have primers for these Lophomonas sp. Recent primer studies lack reliability against Lophomonas, as they adhere to many Parabasalias species.