Immunity to Acanthamoeba culbertsoni: experimental studies with Acanthamoeba and control antigen preparations

Mice were intranasally immunized with living and killed Acanthamoeba as well as culture supernatant, living Toxoplasma and BCG, and challenged with pathogenic A. culbertsoni strain A-1. The best protection was achieved with killed amoebae of the same strain. A high rate of mortality was observed in immunized mice treated with immunosuppressives and challenged with A. culbertsoni A-1. The significance of the results in relation to environmental human infection is discussed.