Wet-mounts made from whole blood, osmotically lysed. The wet-mount contains numerous structures not expected in normal human blood including objects suggestive of spores/cysts/reproductive and/or digestive vacuoles from apparently parasitic organisms of unknown identity. Similar findings were readily apparent in several family members and canine pets of this individual- all of whom shared symptoms of a chronic illness. Their illness are characterized by progressive systemic fibrosis, hematuria, osteopenia, fatigue and autonomic neuropathy. Several genetically-unrelated family members/colleagues of this individual were also affected by this illness, suggesting perhaps both genetic susceptibility, as well as proximity/infectious burden as possible means by which an infectious etiology could explain the cluster of illnesses. Since thorough routine medical work-up failed to identify a cause for the illness in this group of people, we (a group of veterinarians/scientists) have continued to investigate the potential that a novel infectious agent is responsible for this cluster of illness. We have examined tissues donated by healthy control family members to rule out artifacts of processing/interpretation/contamination of stains etc... The control tissues show little to no evidence of similar structures, supporting the hypothesis that these images show some type of novel pathogen. We have attempted some sequencing trials, but have had limited success, likely partly due to not knowing what class of organism we are trying to identify (can't use species-specific primers), as well as the abundant cement-like biopolymer readily produced by the organism, which seems to encase the nuclear material and make extraction very difficult. Also, we do not have a research budget, since we all work in other fields. Our most recent findings have suggested that what we are seeing might be some type of amoebozoan (or similar) organism. There appear to be several distinct, but repeatable, morphologies- all of which bear striking similarity to various life and developmental stages of stramenopiles/amoebozoans. We have forwarded our findings to the CDC- where they were initially met with curiosity and an investigation was to be started. However, with the recent COVID crisis and budget cuts to public health, we have learned that our findings will be essentially the last thing on their list to pursue. Because of this, and the potential public health significance- we welcome the interest of anyone able to help advise and potentially eventually take over research into what might be a more important and widespread pathogen that needs development of diagnostic testing and clinical treatment options.

More Melinda Sarte's questions See All
Similar questions and discussions