scholarly journals Postgenomic Approach To Identify Novel Mycobacterium leprae Antigens with Potential To Improve Immunodiagnosis of Infection

2005 ◽  
Vol 73 (9) ◽  
pp. 5636-5644 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annemieke Geluk ◽  
Michèl R. Klein ◽  
Kees L. M. C. Franken ◽  
Krista E. van Meijgaarden ◽  
Brigitte Wieles ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Early detection of Mycobacterium leprae infection is considered an important component of strategies aiming at reducing transmission of infection, but currently available diagnostic tools often lack sufficient sensitivity and specificity to reach this goal. Recent comparative genomics have revealed the presence of 165 M. leprae genes with no homologue in M. tuberculosis. We selected 17 of these genes for further study. All 17 genes were found to be expressed at the mRNA level in M. leprae from infected mice and from a multibacillary leprosy patient. Additional comparative genomic analyses of all currently available mycobacterial genome databases confirmed 12 candidate genes to be unique to M. leprae, whereas 5 genes had homologues in mycobacteria other than M. tuberculosis. Evaluation of the immunogenicity of all 17 recombinant proteins in PBMC from 127 Brazilians showed that five antigens (ML0576, ML1989, ML1990, ML2283, and ML2567) induced significant gamma interferon levels in paucibacillary leprosy patients, reactional leprosy patients, and exposed healthy controls but not in most multibacillary leprosy patients, tuberculosis patients, or endemic controls. Importantly, among exposed healthy controls 71% had no detectable immunoglobulin M antibodies to the M. leprae-specific PGL-I but responded to one or more M. leprae antigen(s). Collectively, the M. leprae proteins identified are expressed at the transcriptome level and can efficiently activate T cells of M. leprae-exposed individuals. These proteins may provide new tools to develop tests for specific diagnosis of M. leprae infection and may enhance our understanding of leprosy and its transmission.

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (06) ◽  
pp. 378-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalpana Singh ◽  
Bhawna Singh ◽  
Prakash Ray

Background: Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease primarily affecting the peripheral nervous system and skin. Multibacillary leprosy is associated with nerve damage which could contribute to myelin alteration. As ceramide is a constituent of myelin sheath, the present study aimed to compare anti-ceramide antibody titre in paucibacillary and multibacillary leprosy patients with controls. Methodology: Serum levels of anti-ceramide antibody were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) in 50 leprosy patients (25 paucibacillary and 25 multibacillary) and 25 healthy controls. Results were reported in OD units as mean ± SD and analyzed by Chi square test (significance at p < 0.05). Results: Patients suffering from multibacillary leprosy had significantly higher anti-ceramide antibody serum levels compared to paucibacillary leprosy patients and healthy controls (p < 0.005). Conclusions: Since nerve damage is the most debilitating effect of leprosy, the search for a serum marker for assessing nerve damage is required in countries where leprosy is still widespread. In multibacillary leprosy patients, the role of anti-ceramide antibody as a marker for nerve damage should be explored.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amilcar Sabino Damazo ◽  
Stephanni Figueiredo da Silva ◽  
Leticia Rossetto da Silva Cavalcante ◽  
Ezequiel Angelo Fonseca Junior ◽  
Joselina Maria da Silva ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae. Patients have distinct clinical forms, and host´s immunological response regulate those manifestations. In this work, the presence of the myeloid-derived suppressor cell and the regulatory protein annexin A1 is described in patients with multibacillary leprosy and with type 1 and 2 reactions. Methods: Patients were submitted to skin biopsy for histopathological analysis to obtain bacilloscopic index. Immunofluorescence was used to detect myeloid-derived suppressor cells and annexin A1.Results: The data demonstrated that the presence of granulocytic and monocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells in leprosy patients. The high number of monocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells were observed in lepromatous leprosy and type 2 reactional patients with Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccination scar. The presence of annexin A1 was observed in all myeloid-derived suppressor cells. In particularly, the monocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cell in the lepromatous patients has higher levels of this protein when compared to the reactional patients. This data suggest that the higher expression of this protein may be related to regulatory response against a severe infection, contributing to anergic response. In type 1 reactional patients, the expression of annexin A1 was reduced. Conclusions: Myeloid-derived suppressor cell are present in leprosy patients and annexin A1 might be regulated the host response against Mycobacterium leprae.


2008 ◽  
Vol 52 (9) ◽  
pp. 3113-3117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fe Eleanor F. Pardillo ◽  
Jasmin Burgos ◽  
Tranquilino T. Fajardo ◽  
Eduardo Dela Cruz ◽  
Rodolfo M. Abalos ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT In a clinical trial of moxifloxacin in eight multibacillary leprosy patients, moxifloxacin proved highly effective. In all trial patients, a single 400-mg dose of moxifloxacin resulted in significant killing (P ≤ 0.006) of Mycobacterium leprae, ranging from 82% to 99%, with a mean of 91%. In all instances, no viable bacilli were detected with an additional 3 weeks of daily therapy, this observed rapid bactericidal activity being matched previously only by rifampin. On moxifloxacin therapy, skin lesions cleared exceedingly rapidly with definite improvement observed consistently after eight doses and progressive resolution continuing for the 56 days of the trial. Side effects, toxicities, and laboratory abnormalities were mild, not requiring discontinuation of therapy.


2011 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 742-752 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehervani Chaduvula ◽  
A. Murtaza ◽  
Namita Misra ◽  
N. P. Shankar Narayan ◽  
V. Ramesh ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTLsr2 protein ofMycobacterium lepraewas shown earlier to elicit B and T cell responses in leprosy patients (20, 28). Lymphoproliferation toM. lepraeand Lsr2 antigens was observed in >70% of tuberculoid (T) patients and in 16 and 34% of lepromatous (L) patients, respectively. We focused on theM. lepraenonresponders in the lepromatous group using 22 synthetic Lsr2 peptides (end-to-end peptides A to F and overlapping peptides p1 to p16) inin vitroT cell responses. A total of 125 leprosy and 13 tuberculosis patients and 19 healthy controls from the area of endemicity (here, healthy controls, or HC) were investigated. The highest responses were observed (67 to 100%) in HC for all peptides except p1 to p3, and the lowest was observed in tuberculosis patients. Significant differences in lymphoproliferation were observed in T, L, and HC groups (analysis of variance [ANOVA],P= 0.000 to 0.015) for all end-to-end peptides except B and for p5 and p7 to p10. Hierarchical recognition between lepromatous and tuberculoid leprosy was noted for p8 (P< 0.05) and between the HC and L groups for p7 to p10, p15, and p16 (P< 0.005 toP< 0.02). Significant lymphoproliferation was observed to peptides A to F and p1 to p9, p11, p12, p15, p16 (P= 0.000 to 0.001) with 40% responding to peptides C and p16 in L patients. Lepromatous patients also showed significantly higher levels of a gamma interferon (IFN-γ) response to peptide C than to other peptides (P< 0.05). Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II bias for peptide recognition was not observed. These studies indicate that Lsr2 has multiple T cell epitopes that inducein vitroT cell responses in the highly infective lepromatous leprosy patients.


2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.A.M. Morgado de Abreu ◽  
A.M. Roselino ◽  
M. Enokihara ◽  
S. Nonogaki ◽  
L.E. Prestes-Carneiro ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Anita Sanker ◽  
Sandhya George ◽  
Sindhu Chunangat Bhaskaramenon

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Leprosy is a chronic disease caused by <em>Mycobacterium leprae</em>, infectious in some cases, and affecting the peripheral nervous system, skin and certain other tissues. Even though leprosy was declared eliminated as a public health problem in India on December 2005, new cases of leprosy continue to appear. Hence a study on clinical profile and deformities in all leprosy cases registered in the last 5 years was done to know the current status of leprosy in this area.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods: </strong>This was a retrospective record-based study of leprosy cases done at Government Medical College, Manjeri, for a period of 5 years from October 2014 to September 2019.<strong></strong></p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> 42 cases from the record were included in the study. Maximum cases belonged to the age group of 31 to 40 and males were more than females. 81% of the patients were multibacillary leprosy (MB) and 8 cases belonged to paucibacillary (PB) leprosy. Four child cases were registered as PB cases. Mostly encountered clinical diagnosis was borderline tuberculoid leprosy (23 out of 42) and two had type 1 reaction. Seven patients had deformity of which two had grade 2 deformity and rest had grade 1 deformity.</p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> One patient who presented with grade 2 deformity and type 1 reaction was from tribal area indicating low awareness about leprosy among them. More number of cases in the multibacillary group and presence of child cases and deformities reinforces the need for strict surveillance to eradicate leprosy. </p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanni Figueiredo da Silva ◽  
Leticia Rossetto da Silva Cavalcante ◽  
Ezequiel Angelo Fonseca Junior ◽  
Joselina Maria da Silva ◽  
José Cabral Lopes ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae. Patients have distinct clinical forms, and the host´s immunological response regulate those manifestations. In this work, the presence of the myeloid-derived suppressor cell and the regulatory protein annexin A1 is described in patients with multibacillary leprosy and with type 1 and 2 reactions. Methods Patients were submitted to skin biopsy for histopathological analysis to obtain a bacilloscopic index. Immunofluorescence was used to detect myeloid-derived suppressor cells and annexin A1. Results The data demonstrated that the presence of granulocytic and monocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells in leprosy patients. A high number of monocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells were observed in lepromatous leprosy and type 2 reactional patients. The presence of annexin A1 was observed in all myeloid-derived suppressor cells. In particular, the monocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cell in the lepromatous patients has higher levels of this protein when compared to the reactional patients. This data suggest that the higher expression of this protein may be related to regulatory response against a severe infection, contributing to anergic response. In type 1 reactional patients, the expression of annexin A1 was reduced. Conclusions Myeloid-derived suppressor cell are present in leprosy patients and annexin A1 might be regulated the host response against Mycobacterium leprae.


2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (12) ◽  
pp. 1464-1466
Author(s):  
Sara Eleny Pacheco ◽  
Samira Bührer-Sékula ◽  
Rodrigo Scaliante de Moura ◽  
Mariane Martins Stefani ◽  
Maria Leide W. Oliveira ◽  
...  

A serologic survey was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of Mycobacterium leprae infection among healthcare workers and associated factors. Of 280 workers, 26 (9.3%) were positive using immunoglobulin M serology for PGL-I M. leprae antigen. Exposure to leprosy patients in the workplace was significantly associated with seropositivity (P=.044).Infect. Control Hosp. Epidemiol. 2015;36(12):1464–1466


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