Publications
| Title | Abstract | Year(sorted descending) Filter | PMID Filter |
|---|
| lilra2 activation inhibits dendritic cell differentiation and antigen presentation to t cells. | the differentiation of monocytes into dendritic cells (dc) is a key mechanism by which the innate immune system instructs the adaptive t cell response. in this study, we investigated whether leukocyte ig-like receptor a2 (lilra2) regulates dc differentiation by using leprosy as a model. lilra2 protein expression was increased in the lesions of the progressive, lepromatous form vs the self-limited, tuberculoid form of leprosy. double immunolabeling revealed lilra2 expression on cd14+, cd68+ monoc ... | 2007 | 18056355 |
| lepromatous leprosy of histoid type. | histoid leprosy is a variant of lepromatous leprosy, which develops as a result of resistance to dapsone monotherapy. here we report two cases of lepromatous leprosy of histoid type, one with typical and another with atypical presentations. | 2007 | 17377360 |
| hla-drb1*04 and drb1*10 are associated with resistance and susceptibility, respectively, in brazilian and vietnamese leprosy patients. | the host genetic background has been considered one of the factors that influence leprosy outcome, a chronic infectious disease caused by mycobacterium leprae. genome scans demonstrated that the 6p21 region is associated with leprosy and a substantial number of population-based studies analyzing human leukocyte antigen (hla) class ii loci suggested association of hla-dr with leprosy. however, some studies lacked robustness as they had limited power. indeed, experimental designs require increased ... | 2007 | 17396103 |
| mycobacterium leprae in neurons of the medulla oblongata and spinal cord in leprosy. | peripheral neuropathy has been extensively studied in leprosy, a chronic disease caused by mycobacterium leprae, but the central nervous system (cns) is thought to be free from bacilli. involvement of the cns was explored in autopsy cases of clinically cured lepromatous leprosy (n = 67) and in non-leprosy cases (n = 15). paraffin sections of the medulla oblongata and spinal cord were subjected to hematoxylin and eosin staining, fite acid-fast staining, and anti-phenolic glycolipid-i (pgl-i) immu ... | 2007 | 17413319 |
| a overview of ocular leprosy after 2 decades of multidrug therapy. | 2007 | 17667278 | |
| antigen-specific cellular and humoral responses are induced by intradermal mycobacterium leprae infection of the mouse ear. | leprosy is caused by infection with mycobacterium leprae. the immune response of leprosy patients can be highly diverse, ranging from strong cellular responses accompanied by an apparent deficit of m. leprae-specific antibodies to strong humoral responses with a deficit of cell-mediated responses. leprosy takes many years to manifest, and this has precluded analyses of disease and immune response development in infected humans. in an attempt to better define development of the immune response du ... | 2007 | 17724073 |
| long lasting bcg protection against leprosy. | bcg vaccine protects against leprosy. | 2007 | 17728023 |
| serological heterogeneity against various mycobacterium leprae antigens and its use in serodiagnosis of leprosy patients. | 2007 | 17761497 | |
| characterization of an exported monoglyceride lipase from mycobacterium tuberculosis possibly involved in the metabolism of host cell membrane lipids. | the rv0183 gene of the mycobacterium tuberculosis h37rv strain, which has been implicated as a lysophospholipase, was cloned and expressed in escherichia coli. the purified rv0183 protein did not show any activity when lysophospholipid substrates were used, but preferentially hydrolysed monoacylglycerol substrates with a specific activity of 290 units x mg(-1) at 37 degrees c. rv0183 hydrolyses both long chain di- and triacylglycerols, as determined using the monomolecular film technique, althou ... | 2007 | 17784850 |
| wade's histoid leprosy: three clinical presentations. | wade's histoid leprosy is a rare form of multibacillary leprosy with distinctive characteristics which were first described in patients treated with a short course of sulfones. wade's histoid leprosy may occur as a relapse, in the setting of sulfone resistance, or may present de novo. we report the clinical, histologic, immunologic, and bacteriologic features of three adult male patients with this rare variant of lepromatous leprosy as the initial presentation of the disease, observed in the der ... | 2007 | 17822497 |
| vitamin a and lipid peroxidation in patients with different forms of leprosy. | leprosy, a chronic infectious disease, is caused by a mycobacterium leprae infection. after india, brazil has the second greatest number of cases in the world. increase of oxidative stress and antioxidant deficiency are present in infected subjects and can be related to infection progression. we studied alterations in serum levels of lipid peroxidation (lpo) and vitamin a in patients with different forms of leprosy. four groups of leprosy patients and a control group (healthy subjects) were sele ... | 2007 | 17823748 |
| serum samples from patients with mycobacterial infections cross-react with hiv structural proteins gp41, p55 and p18. | infection with mycobacterium leprae is associated with a high frequency of false positive results in a variety of serological assays. our studies have found cross-reactivity to hiv structural proteins in serum samples from leprosy patients, irrespective of the type of disease, treatment duration, age and gender and from a few patients with active tb disease. | 2007 | 17824484 |
| metabolome based reaction graphs of m. tuberculosis and m. leprae: a comparative network analysis. | several types of networks, such as transcriptional, metabolic or protein-protein interaction networks of various organisms have been constructed, that have provided a variety of insights into metabolism and regulation. here, we seek to exploit the reaction-based networks of three organisms for comparative genomics. we use concepts from spectral graph theory to systematically determine how differences in basic metabolism of organisms are reflected at the systems level and in the overall topologic ... | 2007 | 17849010 |
| [summary of questionnaires on slit skin smear test in clinics, hospitals, and university hospitals]. | we have performed a questionnaire to survey the present conditions of the slit skin smear test, a method to diagnose leprosy. the answer was obtained from 40 (93.0%) out of 43 clinics, department of dermatology of university and other hospitals and leprosy sanatoriums. slit skin smear test was carried out in most institutions. however, when inspection frequency was low, a laboratory technician performed ziehl-neelsen staining or its variation using a normal slide glass. a few institutions carrie ... | 2007 | 17877035 |
| [mycobacterium shinshuense and mycobacterium leprae infections: usefulness of genetical examinations]. | although mycobacterium shinshuense and m. leprae infections are relatively rare in the fields of dermatology, an early diagnosis is one of the important prognostic factors of these infections. applications of the genetical examinations such as pcr and 16s rdna sequencing are helpful in early diagnosis with culture nagative cases. short target pcr tests are available to detect dna of m. shinshuense or m. leprae from clinical specimens including formalin fixed-paraffin embedded samples. a partial ... | 2007 | 17877036 |
| enhancement of the sensitivity of the whole-blood gamma interferon assay for diagnosis of mycobacterium bovis infections in cattle. | in this study, we determined if the sensitivity of the currently available in vitro test to detect bovine tuberculosis could be enhanced by adding the following immunomodulators: interleukin-2 (il-2); granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (gm-csf); antibodies neutralizing il-10 and transforming growth factor beta (tgf-beta); mono-methyl-l-arginine, which blocks nitric oxide production; and l-methyl-tryptophan, which interferes with the indoleamine dioxygenase pathway. blood was obtain ... | 2007 | 17881504 |
| typing of thai clinical isolates of mycobacterium leprae and analysis of leprosy transmission by polymorphism of tandem repeats. | mycobacterium leprae isolates from thai leprosy patients were typed for strain differentiation and analysis of leprosy transmission using the six base tandem repeat, gacatc, in rpot gene and ttc repeat as genetic markers. m. leprae dna was isolated from skin biopsies of new untreated leprosy patients living in remote areas or in suburban regions of thailand where leprosy is in low prevalence. in m. leprae strains of 100 patients, ttc alleles exhibited variations in length with 10 to 30, 33 and 3 ... | 2007 | 17883012 |
| use of protein antigens for early serological diagnosis of leprosy. | leprosy is a chronic and debilitating human disease caused by infection with the mycobacterium leprae bacillus. despite the marked reduction in the number of registered worldwide leprosy cases as a result of the widespread use of multidrug therapy, the number of new cases detected each year remains relatively stable. this indicates that m. leprae is still being transmitted and that, without earlier diagnosis, m. leprae infection will continue to pose a health problem. current diagnostic techniqu ... | 2007 | 17898185 |
| arc: automated resource classifier for agglomerative functional classification of prokaryotic proteins using annotation texts. | functional classification of proteins is central to comparative genomics. the need for algorithms tuned to enable integrative interpretation of analytical data is felt globally. the availability of a general,automated software with built-in flexibility will significantly aid this activity. we have prepared arc (automated resource classifier), which is an open source software meeting the user requirements of flexibility. the default classification scheme based on keyword match is agglomerative an ... | 2007 | 17914236 |
| the association between mannan-binding lectin gene polymorphism and clinical leprosy: new insight into an old paradigm. | mannan-binding lectin (mbl), a soluble protein of innate immunity, is known to play a role in pathogen recognition and clearance. for more than a decade, it has been proposed that mbl deficiency may be protective against intracellular pathogens, such as mycobacterium leprae. | 2007 | 17922403 |
| increased langerhans cell accumulation after mycobacterial stimuli. | to evaluate the role of langerhans cells (lcs) in the local activation of leprosy lesions. lcs, acting as tolerance inducers and immune stimuli, are dendritic cells recently implicated in cutaneous homeostasis. the role of lcs in the defence against mycobacterial infection remains poorly understood. | 2007 | 17927586 |
| molecular basis of the defective heat stress response in mycobacterium leprae. | mycobacterium leprae, a major human pathogen, grows poorly at 37 degrees c. the basis for its inability to survive at elevated temperatures was investigated. we determined that m. leprae lacks a protective heat shock response as a result of the lack of transcriptional induction of the alternative sigma factor genes sige and sigb and the major heat shock operons, hsp70 and hsp60, even though heat shock promoters and regulatory circuits for these genes appear to be intact. m. leprae sige was found ... | 2007 | 17933896 |
| th1 polarized response induced by intramuscular dna-hsp65 immunization is preserved in experimental atherosclerosis. | we previously reported that a dna vaccine constructed with the heat shock protein (hsp65) gene from mycobacterium leprae (dna-hsp65) was protective and also therapeutic in experimental tuberculosis. by the intramuscular route, this vaccine elicited a predominant th1 response that was consistent with its protective efficacy against tuberculosis. it has been suggested that the immune response to hsp60/65 may be the link between exposure to microorganisms and increased cardiovascular risk. addition ... | 2007 | 17934646 |
| serum levels of interferon-gamma, tumour necrosis factor-alpha, soluble interleukin-6r and soluble cell activation markers for monitoring response to treatment of leprosy reactions. | identifying pathogen and host-related laboratory parameters are essential for the early diagnosis of leprosy reactions. the present study aimed to clarify the validity of measuring the profiles of serum cytokines [interleukin (il)-4, il-6, il-10, interferon (ifn)-gamma and tumour necrosis factor (tnf)-alpha], the soluble il-6 receptor (sil-6r), soluble t cell (scd27) and macrophage (neopterin) activation markers and mycobacterium leprae-specific anti-pgl-i igm antibodies in relation to the lepro ... | 2007 | 17937676 |
| genomewide linkage analysis of the granulomatous mitsuda reaction implicates chromosomal regions 2q35 and 17q21. | the mitsuda reaction, a delayed granulomatous skin reaction elicited by the intradermal injection of heat-killed mycobacterium leprae, is an in vivo test reflecting the ability to generate an immune granuloma after sensitization by diverse mycobacterial infections. accumulating evidence for the genetic control of the mitsuda reaction has been reported. we performed a genomewide linkage scan for the quantitative mitsuda reaction in 19 large families from vietnam with a history of leprosy (114 off ... | 2007 | 17955444 |
| mycobacterium leprae dna associated with type 1 reactions in single lesion paucibacillary leprosy treated with single dose rifampin, ofloxacin, and minocycline. | leprosy affects skin and peripheral nerves, and acute inflammatory type 1 reactions (reversal reaction) can cause neurologic impairment and disabilities. single skin lesion paucibacillary leprosy volunteers (n = 135) recruited in three brazilian endemic regions, treated with single-dose rifampin, ofloxacin, and minocycline (rom), were monitored for 3 years. poor outcome was defined as type 1 reactions with or without neuritis. igm anti-phenolic glycolipid i, histopathology, mitsuda test, and myc ... | 2007 | 17984336 |
| contribution of gm-csf on the enhancement of the t cell-stimulating activity of macrophages. | mycobacterium leprae is an intracellular parasitic organism that multiplies in macrophages (mø). it inhibits the fusion of mycobacterial phagosome with lysosome and induces interleukin (il)-10 production from macrophages. however, macrophages are heterogenous in various aspects. we examined macrophages that differentiated from monocytes using either recombinant (r) granulocyte-mø colony-stimulating factor (gm-csf) (these mø are named as gm-mø) or rmø colony-stimulating factor (m-csf) (cells name ... | 2007 | 17198761 |
| the oral mucosa in paucibacillary leprosy: a clinical and histopathological study. | involvement of the oral mucosa can occur in lepromatous leprosy; however, lesions in the oral mucosa of paucibacillary patients have not been previously observed. | 2007 | 17223587 |
| mechanism of thioamide drug action against tuberculosis and leprosy. | thioamide drugs, ethionamide (eth) and prothionamide (pth), are clinically effective in the treatment of mycobacterium tuberculosis, m. leprae, and m. avium complex infections. although generally considered second-line drugs for tuberculosis, their use has increased considerably as the number of multidrug resistant and extensively drug resistant tuberculosis cases continues to rise. despite the widespread use of thioamide drugs to treat tuberculosis and leprosy, their precise mechanisms of actio ... | 2007 | 17227913 |
| regulation of human t-cell homing receptor expression in cutaneous bacterial infection. | we investigated the regulation of t-cell homing receptors in infectious disease by evaluating the cutaneous lymphocyte antigen (cla) in human leprosy. we found that cla-positive cells were enriched in the infectious lesions associated with restricting the growth of the pathogen mycobacterium leprae, as assessed by the clinical course of infection. moreover, cla expression on t cells isolated from the peripheral blood of antigen-responsive tuberculoid leprosy patients increased in the presence of ... | 2007 | 17343614 |
| leprosy. | leprosy is a granulomatous disease affecting the skin and nerves caused by mycobacterium leprae. it continues to be a significant public health problem. despite multidrug therapy, immunologic reactions continue to occur, leading to disability and deformity due to neuropathy. it is important that dermatologists are aware of the neurologic as well as the skin manifestations of the condition so that nerve involvement can be identified and treated rapidly. | 2007 | 17350495 |
| identification of novel hsp65 rflps for mycobacterium leprae. | leprosy or hansen's disease is a chronic infectious disease caused by an acid-fast bacillus, mycobacterium leprae (m. leprae). the bacilli proliferate in macrophages infiltrating the skin and gain entry to the dermal nerves via the laminar surface of schwann cells where they replicate. after entry, the schwann cells proliferate and then die. conclusive identification of m. leprae dna in a sample can be obtained by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (pcr-rflp) for ... | 2007 | 17373188 |
| identification and distribution of mycobacterium leprae genotypes in a region of high leprosy prevalence in china: a 3-year molecular epidemiological study. | multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat (vntr) analysis (mlva) has been proposed as a means of strain typing for tracking the transmission of leprosy. however, empirical data for a defined population are lacking. to this end, a study was initiated to assess the diversity and distribution of prevalent mycobacterium leprae strains in qiubei county, yunnan province, people's republic of china, where the annual detection rate of leprosy is 10-fold higher than the national average rate. sixty-ei ... | 2007 | 17428944 |
| leprosy-specific b-cells within cellular infiltrates in active leprosy lesions. | leprosy is a spectral disease with polar lepromatous and tuberculoid forms correlating with enhanced humoral and cell-mediated immunity, respectively, against mycobacterium leprae and the borderline forms, borderline lepromatous, midborderline, and borderline tuberculoid showing in-between clinical and immunological characteristics. histopathologically, the cellular infiltrates of leprosy lesions show predominantly the presence of interacting t-cells and antigen presenting cells like macrophages ... | 2007 | 17442378 |
| semi-quantitative detection of mycobacterium leprae antigens in skin scrapings: suitability as a laboratory aid for field diagnosis of leprosy. | we describe here a method, potentially suitable for field applications, for semi-quantitative detection of mycobacterium leprae antigens in skin scrapings, which are taken normally for smear microscopy. thirty acid-fast bacilli-negative paucibacillary (pb) leprosy patients comprised the main study group; eight acid-fast bacilli-positive multibacillary (mb) patients and five healthy laboratory workers served as controls. samples in saline were spotted on nitrocellulose paper and probed with mycob ... | 2007 | 17445850 |
| performance of recombinant esat-6 antigen (ml0049) for detection of leprosy patients. | the study was aimed to evaluate the mycobacterium leprae recombinant early secreted antigenic target-6 (resat-6) for its serological performance in leprosy patients. | 2007 | 17451520 |
| *no dissociation represents the rate limiting step for o2-mediated oxidation of ferrous nitrosylated mycobacterium leprae truncated hemoglobin o. | mycobacterium leprae truncated hemoglobin o (trhbo) protects from nitrosative stress and sustains mycobacterial respiration. here, kinetics of m. leprae trhbo(ii)-no denitrosylation and of o(2)-mediated oxidation of m. leprae trhbo(ii)-no are reported. values of the first-order rate constant for *no dissociation from m. leprae trhbo(ii)-no (k(off)) and of the first-order rate constant for o(2)-mediated oxidation of m. leprae trhbo(ii)-no (h) are 1.3 x 10(-4) s(-1) and 1.2 x 10(-4) s(-1), respect ... | 2007 | 17451651 |
| leprosy and tuberculosis: an insight-review. | a quick glance at this review article provides an insight into the common and different features of m. leprae and m. tuberculosis and the diseases caused by these organisms. table i provides the popular names, history, stigma, description of the disease, clinical features, classification and the types of disease manifestations, who are affected, signs and symptoms, clinical examination, treatment regimens, reactions, relapses, immunity, infectiousness, risk groups, deformities, sequelae, transmi ... | 2007 | 17453929 |
| the proteasome function is required for mycobacterium leprae-induced apoptosis and cytokine secretion. | previous studies have demonstrated the importance of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway in the immune response to bacterial pathogens. to investigate the role of this system in the context of leprosy, mycobacterium leprae-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (pbmc) were treated with the proteasome inhibitor mg132 to assess the levels of apoptosis and cytokine secretion. the results showed that the inhibition of proteasome activity significantly reduced m. leprae-mediated cell death. in ad ... | 2007 | 17462745 |
| [contributions of the netherlands and its colonies to the knowledge of the cause of leprosy in the 19th century]. | to determine the dutch contributions to the formulation of the concept that leprosy is an infectious disease. | 2007 | 17469325 |
| detection of mycobacterium leprae infection in wild nine-banded armadillos (dasypus novemcinctus) using the rapid ml flow test. | mycobaterium leprae infection was investigated in armadillos from the state of espírito santo, brazil. the ml flow test was performed on 37 nine-banded armadillos and positive results were found in 11 (29.7%). the ml flow test may be used to identify possible sources of mycobaterium leprae among wild armadillos. | 2007 | 17486263 |
| [late-occurring cutaneous vasculitis after successful treatment of diffuse lepromatous leprosy: lucio's phenomenon]. | o lucio's phenomenon is an uncommon type 2 reactional state occurring exclusively in patients with diffuse lepromatous leprosy (lucio-latapi leprosy). previous case reports have been most frequent in central america and rare in asia and africa. lucio's phenomenon is characterized by necrotic ulcerations of the skin preferentially on the lower extremities usually in association with ongoing lucio lepromatosis. the purpose of this report is to describe an unusual case of lucio's phenomenon occurri ... | 2007 | 17506277 |
| the ml flow test as a point of care test for leprosy control programmes: potential effects on classification of leprosy patients. | to evaluate the use of the ml flow test as an additional, serological, tool for the classification of new leprosy patients. | 2007 | 17518099 |
| evaluation of major membrane protein-ii as a tool for serodiagnosis of leprosy. | as serodiagnosis is the easiest way of diagnosing a disease, the utility of mycobacterium leprae-derived major membrane protein-ii (mmp-ii), one of the immuno-dominant antigens, in the serodiagnosis of leprosy was examined. the percent positivity by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for anti-mmp-ii antibody was 82.4% for multi-bacillary leprosy, and the specificity of the test was 90.1%. for pauci-bacillary leprosy where cell-mediated immunity predominates, 39.0% showed positive results. thes ... | 2007 | 17521364 |
| detection of mycobacterium leprae dna in skin lesions of leprosy patients by pcr may be affected by amplicon size. | despite the high sensitivity and specificity of pcr for infectious disease diagnostics, it has presented low sensitivity for mycobacterium leprae dna detection in the tuberculoid pole (tt and bt) of leprosy. in order to demonstrate the effect of amplicon size on the efficacy of pcr detection of m. leprae dna in skin lesions of leprosy patients, two pairs of primers targeting the m. leprae genomic dna, rlep3 (x17153), were used to amplify fragments of 372 and 130-bp until their pcr end-points wer ... | 2007 | 17530267 |
| initial diagnosis of leprosy in patients treated by an ophthalmologist and confirmation by conventional analysis and polymerase chain reaction. | to report the initial diagnosis of leprosy in patients seeking treatment from an ophthalmologist in a tertiary eye care center, its confirmation by histopathologic and polymerase chain reaction analysis, and review of literature. | 2007 | 17532046 |
| cloning and structural analysis of mycobacterium leprae serine hydroxymethyltransferase. | serine hydroxymethyltransferase (shmt) plays a key role in cell physiology as it participates in the different interconversion pathway of folate coenzymes, provides almost exclusively folate one carbon fragments for the biosynthesis of a variety of end products. for the first time, mycobacterium leprae glya gene, encodes the enzyme serine hydroxymethyltransferase, has been cloned in escherichia coli, over-expressed and purified the protein product (mlshmt) for folding and stability studies under ... | 2007 | 17540580 |
| erythema nodosum leprosum: reactional leprosy. | the different clinical forms of leprosy are mainly related to the variety of immunological responses to the infection. thus, lepromatous leprosy occurs in patients with a poor cell-mediated immunity to mycobacterium leprae, whereas tuberculoid leprosy is associated with a high resistance to leprosy bacillus. intermediate forms, including borderline tuberculoid leprosy, borderline lepromatous leprosy, and borderline leprosy, are a continuous and unstable spectrum of the disease. leprosy reactions ... | 2007 | 17544965 |
| cutting edge: a common polymorphism impairs cell surface trafficking and functional responses of tlr1 but protects against leprosy. | tlrs constitute an essential family of pattern recognition molecules that, through direct recognition of conserved microbial components, initiate inflammatory responses following infection. in this role, tlr1 enables host responses to a variety of bacteria, including pathogenic species of mycobacteria. in this study, we report that i602s, a common single nucleotide polymorphism within tlr1, is associated with aberrant trafficking of the receptor to the cell surface and diminished responses of bl ... | 2007 | 17548585 |
| otorhinolaryngologic manifestations of leprosy. | 2007 | 17550559 | |
| a case of recurrent rash and leg numbness mimicking systemic rheumatic disease: the occurrence of leprosy in a nonendemic area. | leprosy, a rare chronic granulomatous communicable disease caused by mycobacterium leprae, is classically known to have cutaneous and neurologic sequelae. as a result of immigration, the disease, endemic in brazil, india, nepal, madagascar, myanmar, and indonesia, has been recognized to be present in north america and the caribbean. we describe a case of a woman presenting with a long history of a recurrent rash and leg numbness, initially diagnosed with systemic lupus, who was later proven to h ... | 2007 | 17551381 |
| long-term culture of multibacillary leprosy macrophages isolated from skin lesions: a new model to study mycobacterium leprae-human cell interaction. | leprosy is characterized by a disease spectrum having two polar clinical forms dependent on the presence or not of cell-mediated immunity. in the tuberculoid forms, granuloma-activated macrophages kill mycobacterium leprae in conjunction with a th1 response while, in multibacillary (mb) lesions, m. leprae nonactivated macrophages infiltrate the nerves and internal organs together with a th2 response. the functional properties and activation pathways of macrophages isolated from patients with mb ... | 2007 | 17553031 |
| [leprosy, a neurologic disease]. | leprosy is a treatable chronic infectious disease, caused by mycobacterium leprae, not highly transmittable that affects mainly the skin and peripheral nerves. often neglected because it is rare in western countries, it may be encountered in patients coming back from endemic areas. diagnostic criteria include underpigmented patches with loss of sensation, thickened peripheral nerves and acid-fast bacilli on skin smears or biopsy material. the variation of the cellular immune response determines ... | 2007 | 17564345 |
| observations on reactions of leprosy in the field. | in order to assess the incidence of reaction in leprosy, it would be necessary to examine the data from a field control unit. in this study, it was found, at a fully monitored control unit, that type i reaction occurred in 3.9% of borderline cases and type ii in 23.7% of ll and bl cases. even so, the load of reaction is not high since reaction of type i and type ii together are seen only in 3.7% of all types of cases. a majority of them are of mild or moderate degree and could be treated as out- ... | 2007 | 17578264 |
| immune modulation induced by tuberculosis dna vaccine protects non-obese diabetic mice from diabetes progression. | we have described previously the prophylactic and therapeutic effect of a dna vaccine encoding the mycobacterium leprae 65 kda heat shock protein (dna-hsp65) in experimental murine tuberculosis. however, the high homology of this protein to the corresponding mammalian 60 kda heat shock protein (hsp60), together with the cpg motifs in the plasmid vector, could trigger or exacerbate the development of autoimmune diseases. the non-obese diabetic (nod) mouse develops insulin-dependent diabetes melli ... | 2007 | 17590177 |
| cd1-restricted t cells in host defense to infectious diseases. | cd1 has been clearly shown to function as a microbial recognition system for activation of t cell responses, but its importance for mammalian protective responses against infections is still uncertain. the function of the group 1 cd1 isoforms, including human cd1a, cdlb, and cdlc, seems closely linked to adaptive immunity. these cd1 molecules control the responses of t cells that are highly specific for particular lipid antigens, the best known of which are abundantly expressed by pathogenic myc ... | 2007 | 17593663 |
| rapid differentiation of mycobacterium tuberculosis and mycobacterium leprae from sputum by polymerase chain reaction. | differentiation of m tuberculosis and m leprae by polymerase chain reaction (pcr), when acid-fast bacilli (afb) were present in sputum from patients at anandaban hospital, was carried out. thirty sputum samples microscopy positive for afb were collected and were subjected to culture. bacterial dna was extracted and pcr was performed using primers specific for mycobacterium tuberculosis and mycobacterium leprae dna. twenty samples were from patients with clinical tb and 10 from patients with clin ... | 2007 | 17593671 |
| predominance of three copies of tandem repeats in rpot gene of mycobacterium leprae from northern india. | this study has been carried out to get understanding of the origin among the strains of mycobacterium leprae in patients from northern india by using number of tandem repeats in rpot gene as marker. biopsies were collected from hundred leprosy cases (paucibacillary (pb) as well as multibacillary (mb)) across the spectrum from patients attending clinic at jalma or diagnosed in field unit at ghatampur (kanpur). these biopsies were homogenized and dna was extracted by a physiochemical procedure. rp ... | 2007 | 17597011 |
| hallmarks of mycolic acid biosynthesis: a comparative genomics study. | mycolic acids, which render unique qualities to mycobacteria, are known to be important for mycobacterial growth, survival, and pathogenicity. it is of interest to understand the evolutionary origins of the mycolic acid pathway (map), as well as the common minimum principles critical for generating the capability of mycolic acid biosynthesis. the recent curation of a comprehensive model of the map in mycobacterium tuberculosis and the availability of a large number of genome sequences make it fe ... | 2007 | 17600834 |
| identification of trehalose dimycolate (cord factor) in mycobacterium leprae. | glycolipids of mycobacterium leprae obtained from armadillo tissue nodules infected with the bacteria were analyzed. mass spectrometric analysis of the glycolipids indicated the presence of trehalose 6,6'-dimycolate (tdm) together with trehalose 6-monomycolate (tmm) and phenolic glycolipid-i (pgl-i). the analysis showed that m. leprae-derived tdm and tmm possessed both alpha- and keto-mycolates centering at c78 in the former and at c81 or 83 in the latter subclasses, respectively. for the first ... | 2007 | 17601578 |
| m. tuberculosis and m. leprae translocate from the phagolysosome to the cytosol in myeloid cells. | m. tuberculosis and m. leprae are considered to be prototypical intracellular pathogens that have evolved strategies to enable growth in the intracellular phagosomes. in contrast, we show that lysosomes rapidly fuse with the virulent m. tuberculosis- and m. leprae-containing phagosomes of human monocyte-derived dendritic cells and macrophages. after 2 days, m. tuberculosis progressively translocates from phagolysosomes into the cytosol in nonapoptotic cells. cytosolic entry is also observed for ... | 2007 | 17604718 |
| comparative genomics of mycobacterial proteases. | although proteases are recognized as important virulent factors in pathogenic microorganisms, little information is available so far regarding the potential role of these enzymes in diseases caused by mycobacteria. here we use bioinformatic tools to compare the protease-coding genes present in the genome of mycobacterium leprae, mycobacterium tuberculosis, mycobacterium bovis and mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis. this analysis allowed a review of the nomenclature of the protease family prese ... | 2007 | 17611072 |
| reconstructing the ancestor of mycobacterium leprae: the dynamics of gene loss and genome reduction. | we have reconstructed the gene content and order of the last common ancestor of the human pathogens mycobacterium leprae and mycobacterium tuberculosis. during the reductive evolution of m. leprae, 1537 of 2977 ancestral genes were lost, among which we found 177 previously unnoticed pseudogenes. we find evidence that a massive gene inactivation took place very recently in the m. leprae lineage, leading to the loss of hundreds of ancestral genes. a large proportion of their nucleotide content ( a ... | 2007 | 17623808 |
| expression analysis of proteases of mycobacterium leprae in human skin lesions. | proteases are commonly involved in bacterial pathogenesis and their inhibition has represented a successful therapeutic approach to treat infectious diseases. however, there is little information on the role of proteases in the pathogenesis of mycobacteria. five of these genes, three coding for putative secreted proteases, were selected in the present study to investigate their expression in mycobacterium leprae isolated from skin biopsies of multibacillary leprosy patients. via nested-pcr, it w ... | 2007 | 17624714 |
| salivary anti-pgl igm and iga titers and serum antibody igg titers and avidities in leprosy patients and their correlation with time of infection and antigen exposure. | the present work proposed to correlate serum antibody avidity and salivary antibody titers as parameters for time of infection and antigen exposure in a cohort study evaluating leprosy patients in different periods of treatment. colorimetric enzyme-immunoassays for salivary antibodies, serum antibody igg titers and avidities were performed in the samples. anti-pgl-1 iga and igm salivary antibodies were significantly higher in multibacillar (mb-l) patients compared to normal controls (p<0.05), bu ... | 2007 | 17625764 |
| activation of human cd4+ t cells by targeting mhc class ii epitopes to endosomal compartments using human cd1 tail sequences. | distinct cd4(+) t-cell epitopes within the same protein can be optimally processed and loaded into major histocompatibility complex (mhc) class ii molecules in disparate endosomal compartments. the cd1 protein isoforms traffic to these same endosomal compartments as directed by unique cytoplasmic tail sequences, therefore we reasoned that antigen/cd1 chimeras containing the different cd1 cytoplasmic tail sequences could optimally target antigens to the mhc class ii antigen presentation pathway. ... | 2007 | 17635609 |
| detection of mycobacterium leprae infection employing a combinatorial approach of anti-45 kda and modified anti-pgl-i antibody detection assays. | 2007 | 17644727 | |
| emergence of an effective adaptive cell mediated immune response to mycobacterium leprae is not impaired in reactive oxygen intermediate-deficient mice. | cytokine-activated macrophages (mphi) employ reactive oxygen intermediates (roi) and reactive nitrogen intermediates (rni) to combat pathogens. the requirement for roi for an effective host response to experimental leprosy using mice which have a disruption in the 91-kd subunit of the napdh oxidase cytochrome b (phox91-/-) was examined. mycobacterium leprae multiplication in phox91-/- foot pads (fp) was elevated early in infection but subsequently arrested similarly to control mice within a noni ... | 2007 | 17645529 |
| the crystal structure of m. leprae ml2640c defines a large family of putative s-adenosylmethionine-dependent methyltransferases in mycobacteria. | mycobacterium leprae protein ml2640c belongs to a large family of conserved hypothetical proteins predominantly found in mycobacteria, some of them predicted as putative s-adenosylmethionine (adomet)-dependent methyltransferases (mtase). as part of a structural genomics initiative on conserved hypothetical proteins in pathogenic mycobacteria, we have determined the structure of ml2640c in two distinct crystal forms. as expected, ml2640c has a typical mtase core domain and binds the methyl donor ... | 2007 | 17660248 |
| breaking down the wall: fractionation of mycobacteria. | mycobacterium spp. possess a complex cell envelope that consists of a plasma membrane, a peptidoglycan-arabinogalactan complex which in turn is esterified by mycolic acids that form with other non-bound lipids an asymmetric permeability barrier and an outer layer, also called a capsule in the case of pathogenic species. in order to investigate the functional roles of the cell envelope components, especially those of the major pathogens mycobacterium tuberculosis and mycobacterium leprae, it is n ... | 2007 | 16839634 |
| b-cell immune responses in hiv positive and hiv negative patients with tuberculosis evaluated with an elisa using a glycolipid antigen. | the diagnostic value of the pgl-tb1 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (elisa) was established following a survey study using sera from 220 tuberculosis patients (including 69 hiv coinfected) and 324 controls. a higher percentage (76.8%) of the hiv-seropositive compared to the hiv-seronegative (58.9%) tb patients were elisa positive (p=0.02) with a specificity of 94%. in hiv-positive tb patients, elisa sensitivity was identical for all sites of disease and antibody levels were not affected by th ... | 2007 | 17030018 |
| glycosylation of pseudomonas aeruginosa strain pa5196 type iv pilins with mycobacterium-like alpha-1,5-linked d-araf oligosaccharides. | pseudomonas aeruginosa is a gram-negative bacterium that uses polar type iv pili for adherence to various materials and for rapid colonization of surfaces via twitching motility. within the p. aeruginosa species, five distinct alleles encoding variants of the structural subunit pila varying in amino acid sequence, length, and presence of posttranslational modifications have been identified. in this work, a combination of mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to i ... | 2007 | 17085575 |
| alterations in t cell signal transduction by m. leprae antigens is associated with downregulation of second messengers pkc, calcium, calcineurin, mapk and various transcription factors in leprosy patients. | mycobacterium leprae, the causative agent of leprosy, challenges host defense mechanism by impairing the signal transduction of t cells which leads to downregulation of t cell proliferation, mainly as a consequence of interference with il-2 production. in this study we sought to identify how soluble forms of m. leprae antigen(s) or particulate (liposome) delivery of the same antigens with two immunomodulators murabutide and t cell peptide of trat protein influence the transcription of il-2 gene ... | 2007 | 17046060 |
| functional characterization of a t-cell receptor bv6+ t-cell clone derived from a leprosy lesion. | human infection with mycobacterium leprae, an intracellular bacterium, presents as a clinical and immunological spectrum; thus leprosy provides an opportunity to investigate mechanisms of t-cell responsiveness to a microbial pathogen. analysis of the t-cell receptor (tcr) repertoire in leprosy lesions revealed that tcr bv6(+) t cells containing a conserved cdr3 motif are over-represented in lesions from patients with the localized form of the disease. here, we derived a t-cell clone from a lepro ... | 2007 | 17140401 |
| il-9 promotes anti-mycobacterium leprae cytotoxicity: involvement of ifngamma. | interleukin 9 (il-9) is a t-cell derived factor preferentially expressed by cd4+ th2 cells and it has been characterized both in human and murine systems. it is a pleiotropic cytokine with multiple functions on cells of the lymphoid, myeloid and mast cell lineages, as well as on lung epithelial cells. other activities described for il-9 support its contribution to asthma and its important role in helminthic infections, where a th2 response can be protective and il-9 enhances resistance or is res ... | 2007 | 17177973 |
| mycobacterium leprae inhibits dendritic cell activation and maturation. | leprosy presents with a clinical spectrum of skin lesions that span from strong th1-mediated cellular immunity and control of bacillary growth at one pole to poor ag-specific t cell immunity with extensive bacillary load and th2 cytokine-expressing lesions at the other. to understand how the immune response to mycobacterium leprae is regulated, human dendritic cells (dc), potent inducers of adaptive immune responses, exposed to m. leprae, mycobacterium tuberculosis (mtb), and mycobacterium bovis ... | 2007 | 17182571 |
| a glucose kinase from mycobacterium smegmatis. | carbon metabolism and regulation is poorly understood in mycobacteria, a genus that includes some major pathogenic species like mycobacterium tuberculosis and mycobacterium leprae. here, we report the identification of a glucose kinase from mycobacterium smegmatis. this enzyme serves in glucose metabolism and global carbon catabolite repression in the related actinomycete streptomyces coelicolor. the gene, msmeg1356 (glka), was found by means of in silico screening. it was shown that it occurs i ... | 2007 | 17183214 |
| treating leprosy: an erb-al remedy? | the leprosy pathogen mycobacterium leprae attacks schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system, causing them to demyelinate. recent work by tapinos et al. shows that a direct mechanism of demyelination induced by m. leprae depends on the binding of the bacterium to the receptor tyrosine kinase erbb2 on schwann cells and the resulting activation of the ras-raf-mek-erk pathway. these findings have relevance for the potential treatment of leprosy and they highlight parallels between the dediffere ... | 2007 | 17276519 |
| detection of mycobacterium leprae in ocular tissues by histopathology and real-time polymerase chain reaction. | to report detection of leprosy in ocular tissue by histopathology and its confirmation by genetic analysis. | 2007 | 17287607 |
| leprosy in a pregnant woman. | herein, we describe a case of leprosy in a 29-year-old pregnant southeast-asian woman who presented with joint pain and multiple disseminated erythematous macules, papules and plaques. histological examination and stains for acid-fast bacilli from skin biopsies substantiated the clinical suspicion of a cutaneous mycobacterial disease and both should be performed in all patients with unidentified skin lesions. the definitive laboratory diagnosis of leprosy was achieved by the application of a spe ... | 2007 | 17297589 |
| expression of b7-1 costimulatory molecules in patients with multibacillary leprosy and reactional states. | the expression of b7 as a costimulatory molecule on the surface of antigen-presenting cells such as macrophages and on dendritic cells characterizes the efficiency of the cell-mediated immune response. | 2007 | 17305909 |
| the reductase that catalyzes mycolic motif synthesis is required for efficient attachment of mycolic acids to arabinogalactan. | mycolic acids are essential components of the cell walls of bacteria belonging to the suborder corynebacterineae, including the important human pathogens mycobacterium tuberculosis and mycobacterium leprae. mycolic acid biosynthesis is complex and the target of several frontline antimycobacterial drugs. the condensation of two fatty acids to form a 2-alkyl-3-keto mycolate precursor and the subsequent reduction of this precursor represent two key and highly conserved steps in this pathway. althou ... | 2007 | 17308303 |
| low temperature incubation improves the performance of anti-phenolic glycolipid-i antibody detecting elisa in leprosy patients. | 2007 | 17314378 | |
| [in-vitro and in-vivo activities of moxifloxacin and garenoxacin against mycobacterium leprae]. | moxifloxacin(mflx) and garenoxacin(grnx), new synthetic antibacterial agents, were assessed for in vitro anti-m. leprae activities. the anti-bacterial activities of these two drugs were compared to those of sparfloxacin (spfx), gatifloxacin(gflx), levofloxacin(lvfx) and rifampicin (rfp). the anti-m leprae activity obtained by buddemeyer system was stronger in order of rfp, mflx, spfx, gflx and grnx and lvfx. the anti-m. leprae activity of mflx or grnx was also examined by the nude mouse footpad ... | 2007 | 17315747 |
| [leprosy and medicine ii--progress and establishment of an absolute isolation policy]. | the leprosy policy of japan began from when the government enacted "law no. 11 (the leprosy prevention act)" in 1907 (meiji 40) and several leprosy sanatoriums were built to receive previously homeless patients. then, with the rise of totalitarianism, the isolation policy of japan gained national support under the slogan "patient relief", which would become a major factor behind the enactment of "leprosy prevention law" in 1931 (showa 6) by which the leprosy policy was changed to one of absolute ... | 2007 | 17315749 |
| recombinant mycobacterium leprae protein associated with entry into mammalian cells of respiratory and skin components. | the transmission of mycobacterium leprae, the causative pathogen of leprosy, has been postulated to occur mainly through upper respiratory route rather than skin-to-skin contact via minor injuries. the m. leprae genome contains mce1a gene, which encodes a putative mammalian cell entry protein. however, to date, there have been no functional analyses of the m. leprae mce1a gene product. | 2007 | 17317107 |
| expression and purification of an active form of the mycobacterium leprae dna gyrase and its inhibition by quinolones. | mycobacterium leprae, the causative agent of leprosy, is noncultivable in vitro; therefore, evaluation of antibiotic activity against m. leprae relies mainly upon the mouse footpad system, which requires at least 12 months before the results become available. we have developed an in vitro assay for studying the activities of quinolones against the dna gyrase of m. leprae. we overexpressed in escherichia coli the m. leprae gyra and gyrb subunits separately as his-tagged proteins by using a pet pl ... | 2007 | 17325221 |
| anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies in leprosy. | anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (anca) are auto-antibodies directed to intracellular components of neutrophils and used to be considered as present almost exclusively in granulomatous vasculitis. recently, these auto-antibodies have been found in other autoimmune disorders as well as infectious diseases. | 2007 | 16572282 |
| leprosy. | the world health organization field leprosy classification is based on the number of skin lesions: single-lesion leprosy (1 lesion), paucibacillary leprosy (2-5 skin lesions), and multibacillary leprosy (more than 5 skin lesions). worldwide, about 720,000 new cases of leprosy are reported each year, and about 2 million people have leprosy-related disabilities. methods and outcomes: we conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical questions: what are the effects of inte ... | 2007 | 19454067 |
| study of antileprosy activities of some dialkyldithiocarbamate derivatives. | effects of some dialkyldithiocarbamate derivatives on multiplication of m. leprae were studied in infected mice. compounds significantly suppressing m. leprae proliferation were selected. by antibacterial activity one of these compounds was superior to dapsone, the main antileprosy drug. | 2007 | 18225763 |
| recent advances in immunodiagnosis of leprosy. | although prevalence of leprosy is considerably reduced, the unabated emergence of about 300,000 cases worldwide indicates that the source of infection and transmission are not being addressed. early diagnosis and treatment still remain the cornerstone of leprosy control. many diagnostic issues hinder the correct and timely diagnosis and classification of leprosy. delayed and missed diagnosis of infectious leprosy patients and the lack of tests to measure asymptomatic m. leprae infection in conta ... | 2007 | 18085168 |
| recent advances in molecular biology of leprosy. | the last three decades have witnessed rapid progress in understanding the molecular biology of mycobacterium leprae. following the availability of complete genome sequence of leprosy bacillus in 2001, things have drastically changed. with the information about genetic structure, several techniques have been developed for diagnosis, molecular epidemiology and also detection of drug resistance. with the decline in the prevalence of leprosy globally, there has been some reduction in interest in the ... | 2007 | 18085172 |
| comparison of radiorespirometric budemeyer assay with atp assay and mouse foot pad test in detecting viable mycobacterium leprae from clinical samples. | this study compares the results of radiorespirometric buddemeyer assay with adenosine triphosphate (atp) assay and mouse foot pad (mfp) test to validate the sensitivity of buddemeyer assay in detecting viable m. leprae in clinical samples. | 2007 | 18087085 |
| utility of measuring serum levels of anti-pgl-i antibody, neopterin and c-reactive protein in monitoring leprosy patients during multi-drug treatment and reactions. | to verify the validity of measuring the levels of mycobacterium leprae-specific anti-phenolic glycolipid (pgl)-i antibody, neopterin, a product of activated macrophages, and c-reactive protein (crp), an acute phase protein, in serial serum samples from patients for monitoring the leprosy spectrum and reactions during the course of multi-drug treatment (mdt). | 2007 | 18076551 |
| quantiferon tb gold: a new method for latent tuberculosis infection. | quantiferon-tb gold obtained approval in 2003 by the food and drug administration as a valid tool for the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis. in this report, we evaluated its potential use in the immunological diagnosis of mycobacterium tuberculosis infections in different groups of subjects. our data indicate that quantiferon-tb gold is specific for identifying subjects who have come into contact with m. tuberculosis and its use alongside traditional diagnostic techniques may be an important inst ... | 2007 | 18080685 |
| [study on genotyping of mycobacterium leprae and families with multi-cases]. | multiple locus variable number-tandem repeat (vntr) analysis (mlva) had been proposed as a means of strain typing for tracking of source and studying the transmission chain of pathogens. however, empirical data for a defined population from scale and duration were lacking for studying the transmission chain of leprosy. | 2007 | 18069551 |
| [detection of new cases of leprosy in the city of prudentópolis, pr: the analysis from 1998 to 2005]. | the aim of this study was to evaluate the detection of new cases of leprosy in prudentópolis, state of paraná, from 1998 to 2005. additionally, we investigated the age group and predominant clinical form of leprosy cases. data were obtained from clinical-epidemiological records of confirmed leprosy cases that were notified in the information system for notifiable diseases, between 1998 and 2005. over this period, 222 leprosy cases were notified, of which 63% presented the multibacillary form, wi ... | 2007 | 17992410 |
| dual mycobacterial infection in the setting of leflunomide treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. | 2007 | 17242021 | |
| the impact of leprosy control on the transmission of m. leprae: is elimination being attained? | in 1991 the world health assembly decided to 'eliminate leprosy as a public health problem' by the year 2000. elimination was defined as reducing the global prevalence of the disease to less than 1 case per 10,000. in 2000 the world health organization (who) announced that elimination was reached globally. conventionally control of disease is defined as the reduction of disease burden to a locally acceptable level. elimination of disease is defined as the reduction to zero of the incidence in a ... | 2007 | 18309706 |
| the frequency of drug resistance mutations in mycobacterium leprae isolates in untreated and relapsed leprosy patients from myanmar, indonesia and the philippines. | the magnitude of drug resistance in mycobacterium leprae to dapsone, rifampicin, and ofloxacin was studied in three southeast asian countries with a high prevalence of leprosy. | 2007 | 18309708 |