Molecular Identification of Encephalitazoon intestinalis and the Prevalence of Renal Microsporidiosis in Renal Transplant Recipients in Türkiye.

Objective: In patients with end-stage kidney disease, kidney transplantation is the kidney replacement therapy option that provides the most successful survival. However, immunosuppression agents administered after kidney transplantation can increase the risk of opportunistic infections. Microsporidia are obligate intracellular pathogens that can be fatal in immunosuppressed patients. The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of microsporidia in kidney transplantation recipients and the molecular characterization of the detected species.

Methods: To evaluate the prevalence of renal microsporidiosis in kidney transplant recipients, the urine samples from a total of 325 patients were analyzed by real-time and nested polymerase chain reaction for Encephalitozoon spp. and Enterocytozoon bieneusi.

Results: Only one (0.4%) sample from the adult patient was positive for the Encephalitozoon species, while no positivity was found in pediatric patients. It was determined as Encephalitozoon intestinalis by ITS rRNA gene region sequence analysis. A microsporidia species obtained from humans in Türkiye has been characterized for the first time and registered in GenBank.

Conclusion: Our epidemiological results show that the prevalence of renal microsporidiosis in kidney transplant recipients is very low. In addition, as a result of the phylogenetic analysis of the detected isolate, it was observed that it was 100% identical to the isolates reported from dogs in Kayseri, Türkiye. This situation provided essential data regarding the zoonotic transmission dynamics of microsporidia.