A 73-year-old male underwent a splenectomy from a traffic accident in 2014, and a blood transfusion was performed during the surgery. He had no chronic diseases, and no drug, alcohol abuse, or food allergies were recorded. The patient had quit smoking 10 years ago and lived with his family in an urban area of Hulunbuir Grassland (E115°31’–126°04’, and N 47°05’-53°20’) Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, without a positive family medical history.
The patient developed fever with a maximum body temperature of 39 °C on October 22, 2021, defined as the first day of the onset of the disease (Figure 1). Headaches, nausea, and vomiting remained for several days. On 26 October, the patient was admitted to the local hospital, where he received a systematic examination and standard laboratory tests, including blood cultures (repeated five times) and bone marrow tests and culture, while administered antibacterial treatment, including cefoperazone sodium, ornidazole meropenem, etc. over the following time (Supplementary Figure S1). No relevant signs were found, except for a few abnormal biochemical tests, including thrombocytopenia (34 × 109 /L), increased C-reactive protein (88.1 mg/L), and weakly positive tuberculosis-interferon gamma release assay (TB-SPOT). However, the patient’s condition did not improve. On November 9, 2021, the patient was transferred to the Fifth Medical Center of the PLA General Hospital in Beijing due to uncontrolled body temperature (previous statement: loss of fever remission and reliance on indometacin suppository twice daily to control). After admission, a detailed physical examination revealed no positive signs, except for abdominal surgical scars. Assays for 11 pathogenic bacteria and two viruses (Supplementary Table S1) were performed in the hospital and all results were negative. Therefore, we ruled out common bacterial and viral infections in this patient. Meanwhile, the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, pure protein derivative test, and computed tomography (CT) of the lung also did not indicate TB infection in the patient. Fortunately, thrombocytopenia (31 × 109/L) and extremely high ferritin levels (>2000 ng/ml) were observed and a tentative suspicion of hematological disorder or malignant tumor bone metastases was made. To validate our suspicion, a thin smear of the peripheral blood sample was made and observed under a microscope with an oil-immersed lens on November 11, 2021. However, the clinical laboratory in our hospital did not report definitive positive results. We empirically used doxycycline monotherapy (po 0.1 g Bid) to treat some undetectable pathogens, as the patient’s symptoms were persistently unrelieved, and conventional anti-infective therapy was ineffective. During the first 2 days of doxycycline administration, the patient’s body temperature gradually decreased, and the symptoms resolved. We delivered the blood sample on November 11 to the Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology for further pathogen detection. On November 17, a laboratory specialist reported that Babesia was found in blood smears on November 11 (Figure 2). To confirm the result, we collected the blood again on November 17 for smear observation and submitted it for PCR testing and sequencing. Babesia was also found in blood smears, and Babesia venatrum was identified. Additionally, PET-CT did not indicate any high metabolic lesions on November 13, and two bone marrow aspirations did not reveal any special abnormalities on November 11 and 23. Therefore, the patient was diagnosed with babesiosis.
According to the recommendations of the United States CDC, we were engaged to treat the patient with atovaquone and quinine. However, emergency conscription for quinine and atovaquone is not available in China. As an alternative chemical, doxycycline has been shown to have sensitive antiparasitic activities by inhibiting the synthesis of apicoplast protein in Plasmodium species and successfully treating Babesia canis and Babesia gibsoni infection in dogs [23, 24]. Moreover, due to the use of doxycycline, the patient's clinical symptoms have gradually eased. Therefore, we continued the monotherapy practice of doxycycline (po, 0.1 g Bid), followed by strict supervision and regular monitoring of parasite loads.
As expected, the patient recovered rapidly after doxycycline monotherapy; the babesia protozoan burden decreased dramatically from pretreated 12000/μL to 3840/μL (3 days, dpt), 2400/μL (5 dpt), and 1440/μL (8 dpt). Broken or fragmented merozoites were frequently recorded during the procedure of the regimen. Body temperature decreased after 2-day therapy, returned to normal after 7-day therapy, and then remained normal thereafter (Figure 4). However, the relevant manifestations disappeared (Supplementary Table S2). The patient was discharged on day 35 of the onset of the disease. Since then, a consecutive follow-up survey of the patient with a continuing course of doxycycline treatment was performed for 90 days.
The patient was readmitted to the hospital for follow-up on February 11, 2022 and had no complaints. We performed a detailed systematic examination of the patient, but did not find abnormal signs. The same protocol was used to monitor the babesia burden on the patient. Both morphological observations and PCR were negative for whole blood collected at 117 days (Figure 1). Doxycycline-related side effects and sequelae, including erythema and hepatic inadequacy, have not been documented. In this case, the patient maintained his normal body temperature and health status from the time chemical therapy was stopped until the final follow-up visit on August 19, 2022 (Figure 1 and Supplementary Table S3).
Confirmation on the infected patient
Morphological examination, PCR test and sequencing as well as parasitemia surveillance were used for the determination of the patient. A thin smear of the peripheral blood sample was made according to the conventional method, fixed with methanol solution, stained with 1% Gimsa solution for 30 min, and observed under a microscope with an oil-immersed lens. The number of protozoa and red blood cells was counted in each field. The density of protozoa was calculated as the number of protozoa per microliter of blood.
Whole blood was screened by PCR for Babesia and other tick-borne pathogens with primers for the Babesia-specific 18S rRNA gene [7], Anaplasma-specific partial 16S rRNA gene [18], Rickettsia-specific ompA gene [19], Borrelia miyamotoi-specific 16S rRNA gene19 [20],and Borrelia burgdorferi-specific 5S-23S rRNA gene [21]. PCR products were detected by 1% agarose gel electrophoresis. The target amplicons were sent to Beijing Tianyi Huiyuan Biotechnology Co., LTD, for sequencing. The sequences obtained were compared using the online BLAST software in NCBI. The β -tubulin gene of B. venatorum was also amplified with the primers BabtubF 5'- ACTGGAGCGCGTTGATGTGTTCT -3' and BabtubR 5'- GCCTTCGGTGTAGTG TCCCTTGG -3', designed according to the reference gene (KX827595). Meanwhile, the full-length 18S rRNA gene of B. venatorum was amplified with semi-nested PCR by the out primers babe16s-1F (5'- GCCA GTAGTCATATGCTTGTCTTAA -3') and babe16s-1666R (5'- CTCCTTC CTTTAAGTGATAAGGTTC-3'), and the inner primers babe16s-916R (5'- GGTATCTGATCG TCTTCGATCCCCT -3') and babe16s-730F (5'- TTTGGTTCTATTTTGTT GGTTTTTG -3'), respectively, designed according to the reference genes LC005775 and KU204792. The sequence of the two amplicons obtained from the second PCR was spliced using CLC software. The patient’s blood was then inoculated into six mice with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) through the caudal vein and the intraperitoneal cavity. Tail blood was collected every 3 days for blood smear Giemsa staining until the observation period of 27 days.