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Microbiology: Current Research | Volume 3
May 20-21, 2019 | Vienna, Austria
Medical Microbiology
4
th
International Conference on
Blastocystis
sp. - a harmless commensal to a harmful pathogen
Suresh K, Arunchelvan R
and
Chandramathi S
University of Malaya, Malaysia
T
he talk will highlight a long quest to search for answers
surrounding one of the most enigmatic organisms called
Blastocysti
s sp.Many aspects of the organismwere constantly
enshrouded with questions. With every new finding
there arose conflicting reports, confusing data and more
importantly discrepancies especially on the parasite’s role
in causing disease. Hence
Blasocystis
sp. was dismissed and
considered only to be another commensal along with million
other organisms in the human gut. Paradoxically, it is one of
the most commonly found organism in any stool survey. The
talk details key highlights since 1990 on our contributions
made to unravel the biology, life cycle, prevalence, genotypic
expressions, phenotypic characteristics, pathogenicity, drug
treatment, apoptosis and association to irritable bowel
syndrome and colorectal cancer. In the early 90’s, there
were scanty and sporadic number of reference papers, lack
of expertise to provide guidance and most of all the lack of
encouragement to proceed this path from sceptics who were
sure that this
Blastocystis
sp. quest would be unprofitable.
The presentation will trace the historical development of
research on
Blastocystis
sp. and at the same time highlights
the thought processes and paradigm shifts which contributed
to the newer insights on this organism. The talk will highlight
how this once considered harmless commensal has been
associated with colorectal cancer, stress and irritable bowel
syndrome.
e
:
suresh@um.edu.myMicrobiol Curr Res, Volume 3
DOI: 10.4066/2591-8036-C1-006