<i>Tropheryma whipplei</i> and <i>Giardia intestinalis</i> Co-Infection: Metagenomic Analysis During Infection and the Recovery Follow-Up

Abstract

Background: Whipple’s disease (WD) is a rare infection caused by Tropheryma whipplei. Diagnosis is challenging and requires a combination of several data sets, such as patient history, clinical and laboratory investigations, and endoscopy with histology analyses. While persistent diarrhea is a common symptom, WD can affect multiple organs. Case description: We present the case of a 66-year-old immunocompetent patient with WD and a history of Helicobacter pylori infection who developed chronic diarrhea. Colonoscopy and histopathological analysis revealed the presence of foamy macrophages with periodic acid-Schiff-positive particles. Subsequently, molecular methods confirmed the clinical WD diagnosis and metagenomic analyses further identified a co-infection with Giardia intestinalis. The patient fully recovered after 14 months of antibiotic therapy. During pharmacological treatment, clinical and laboratory follow-ups were conducted at 6 and 12 months, and microbiome profiles were also analyzed to identify the most abundant species in the samples. Conclusion: The metagenomic analyses showed the eradication of the two pathogens and a progressive restoration to a healthy/balanced status after antibiotic therapy.

Keywords

• Whipple’s disease (WD)
• next-generation sequencing (NGS)
• gut microbiome
• bioinformatics
• metagenomic analyses