Prevalence and genetic diversity of Trichomonas vaginalis clinical isolates in a targeted population in Xinxiang City, Henan Province, China

Abstract

BackgroundTrichomonas vaginalis (TV) is a protozoan parasite that causes trichomoniasis, a sexually transmitted disease, worldwide. In this study, we investigated the prevalence and genetic characterization of T. vaginalis and contrasted the most prevalent strains of T. vaginalis isolated from Xinxiang City, Henan Province, China.ResultsIn Xinxiang from September 2015 to September 2017, a total of 267 (1.64%, 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.45–1.85) clinical T. vaginalis-positive samples from vaginal secretions were observed by wet mount microscopy from 16,294 women with some clinical symptoms of trichomoniasis. We found that trichomoniasis frequently occurred in the 21- to 40-year-old age group and in winter. After the 267 clinical T. vaginalis positive samples were cultured, 68 isolates of T. vaginalis were harvested and identified as genotype E (58.82%), H (17.65%), mixed 1 (17.65%) and mixed 2 (5.88%) using a sensitive and reliable polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) typing method on the actin gene. The phylogenetic diversity analysis showed that the genotype E samples fell within a separate clade compared to the other T. vaginalis isolates, while the samples of the genotype H separated into two clades.ConclusionsOur results demonstrate a notable gene polymorphism of clinical isolates from the targeted population and provide insight into the performance of these genetic markers in the molecular epidemiology of trichomoniasis. However, further studies are needed to clarify the association between a certain genotype and the pathogenicity of T. vaginalis.

The Molecular Characterization and Immunity Identification of Trichomonas vaginalis Adhesion Protein 33 (AP33)

“…In the United States, almost 5 million people are infected with T. vaginalis every year, and in Japan the infection rate in women is 24.3%. Moreover, the prevalence in target populations in rural Uganda and South Africa was 23.8 and 18.0%, respectively, (Zhang et al, 2018a). T. vaginalis can cause atypical pelvic inflammation in women, urethritis and prostatitis in men, as well as trichomonas pneumonia, bronchitis and oral lesions in newborns (Patel et al, 2018).…”

Development of a convenient detection method for Trichomonas vaginalis based on loop-mediated isothermal amplification targeting adhesion protein 65

“…According to the results of a cross-sectional research in a city attached to Yunnan Province, southern China, the T. vaginalis prevalence was 9.0% among 734 female sex workers [37]. In addition, according to an observation conducted in Xinxiang of Henan Province, China, 267 of 16,294 (1.64%) samples from female patients suffering from certain trichomoniasis symptoms exhibited clinical positive results under wet mount microscopy [11]. Accurate and rapid diagnosis of trichomoniasis is the key process of treatment, prevention and blocking transmission.…”

“…In the United States, nearly 5 million people were infected with T. vaginalis every year, while the infection rate was 24.3% in Japan, 23.8% in Uganda and 18.0% in South Africa [10]. In China, the infection rate in different places and people fluctuated greatly, ranging from a few percent to dozens of percent [11][12][13]. Clinical manifestations of the disease in women possibly contain vulvovaginal irritation, lower abdominal pain, dyspareunia, dysuria, malodorous vaginal discharge [2,14], although the infection is usually asymptomatic in men or in a few cases with the clinical manifestations of dysuria, irritation, urethral discharge [15,16].…”

Genotyping of Trichomonas vaginalis isolates from Egypt

“…Among twenty T. vaginalis isolates from symptomatic females, genotype E was the most common, followed by G, with only one isolate assigned for H, and two mixed isolates of genotypes E and H [34] . In another report, out of 68 T. vaginalis isolates, two E and H genotypes were found in addition to mixed genotypes in three isolates [31] . Recently, investigators detected three genotypes (E, G and I) in Iranian isolates of T. vaginalis infected with dsRNA viruses [35] .…”

“…In bacteria and eukaryotic pathogens, MLST has been used successfully to describe population diversity, delimit species, identify genetic components of important clinical phenotypes, and track the spread of epidemics [31,[37][38][39] Moreover, the portability of its data allows comparison of results from different laboratories [38,40] . However, so far, MLST was not previously used on Egyptian T. vaginalis isolates.…”