Publications
| Title | Abstract | Year(sorted descending) Filter | PMID Filter |
|---|
| a recessive major gene controls the mitsuda reaction in a region endemic for leprosy. | leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by mycobacterium leprae. the mitsuda reaction is a delayed granulomatous skin reaction elicited by intradermal injection of heat-killed m. leprae. interestingly, results of the mitsuda test are positive in the majority of individuals, even in areas not endemic for m. leprae. like leprosy, the mitsuda reaction is thought to be genetically controlled, but its mode of inheritance is unknown, although the role of the nramp1 gene has previously been repo ... | 2005 | 16170767 |
| genetic polymorphism among mycobacterium leprae strains from northern india, by using ttc repeats. | 2005 | 16173423 | |
| identification and characterization of an immunogenic 22 kda exported protein of mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis. | an exported 22 kda putative lipoprotein was identified in an alkaline phosphatase gene fusion library of mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis and expressed in mycobacterium smegmatis. the full nucleic acid sequence of the gene encoding p22 was determined and the orf was cloned into a mycobacterial expression vector, enabling full-length p22 to be produced as a c-terminal polyhistidine-tagged protein in m. smegmatis. n-terminal sequencing of the recombinant protein confirmed cleavage of a ... | 2005 | 16192441 |
| neurological manifestations of hansen's disease and their management. | hansen's disease is almost eliminated from developed countries but in developing countries of africa, asia and latin america leprosy is still considered to be a public health problem. mycobacterium leprae have the affinity for peripheral nerves and neuropathy is a cardinal manifestation of the disease. the nerve damage affects sensory, motor, and autonomic fibers resulting in the physical impairments and limitation of physical activities and social participation. leprosy is a curable disease and ... | 2005 | 16202816 |
| hiv and leprosy in the eastern united states. | 2005 | 16206087 | |
| diversity of potential short tandem repeats in mycobacterium leprae and application for molecular typing. | a recent advance in molecular typing for tracing the transmission of leprosy is the discovery of short tandem repeats (strs) in mycobacterium leprae. to substantiate polymorphic loci from str as promising candidates for molecular typing tools in leprosy epidemiology, 44 str loci including 33 microsatellites and 11 minisatellites were investigated among 27 laboratory strains by sequencing pcr products. not all strs were necessarily polymorphic. thirty-two out of the 44 loci were polymorphic. nine ... | 2005 | 16207987 |
| allergic sensitisation in tuberculosis and leprosy patients. | a negative association has been observed between infections and allergy in several studies. the aim of the present study was to examine whether tuberculosis and leprosy patients have more or fewer allergies than healthy individuals. | 2005 | 16210860 |
| cytokines and mycobacterium leprae induce apoptosis in human schwann cells. | the development of deformities during the course of leprosy disease is a major public health concern worldwide. it is possible that cytokine production and apoptosis of schwann cells (scs) directly affect nerve degeneration and regeneration leading to injury of the myelin sheath and axon. in the present study, the expression of tnfalpha, tgfbeta, and their receptors, in addition to cell death triggered by cytokines or whole mycobacterium leprae were investigated in a human sc line. the results s ... | 2005 | 16215460 |
| same-sex mating and the origin of the vancouver island cryptococcus gattii outbreak. | genealogy can illuminate the evolutionary path of important human pathogens. in some microbes, strict clonal reproduction predominates, as with the worldwide dissemination of mycobacterium leprae, the cause of leprosy. in other pathogens, sexual reproduction yields clones with novel attributes, for example, enabling the efficient, oral transmission of the parasite toxoplasma gondii. however, the roles of clonal or sexual propagation in the origins of many other microbial pathogen outbreaks remai ... | 2005 | 16222245 |
| characterization of phylogenetically distant members of the adenylate cyclase family from mycobacteria: rv1647 from mycobacterium tuberculosis and its orthologue ml1399 from m. leprae. | analysis of the genome sequence of mycobacterium tuberculosis h37rv has identified 16 genes that are similar to the mammalian adenylate and guanylate cyclases. rv1647 was predicted to be an active adenylate cyclase but its position in a phylogenetically distant branch from the other enzymes characterized so far from m. tuberculosis makes it an interestingly divergent nucleotide cyclase to study. in agreement with its divergence at the sequence level from other nucleotide cyclases, the cloning, e ... | 2005 | 15500449 |
| immunotherapy with plasmid dna encoding mycobacterial hsp65 in association with chemotherapy is a more rapid and efficient form of treatment for tuberculosis in mice. | tuberculosis (tb) remains a threat for public health, killing around 3 million people a year. despite the fact that most cases can be cured with antibiotics, the treatment is long and patients relapse if chemotherapy is not continued for at least 6 months. thus, a better characterization of the working principles of the immune system in tb and identification of new immunotherapeutic products for the development of shorter regimens of treatment are essential to achieve an effective management of ... | 2005 | 15526006 |
| summarizing data through a piecewise linear growth curve model. | most of the research in clinical trials is based on longitudinal designs, which involve repeated measurements of a variable of interest. such designs are very powerful, both statistically and scientifically. recent advances in statistical theory and software development incorporate the covariance structures such as unstructured, compound symmetry, auto-regressive and random effects, etc., for analysing longitudinal data. hathaway et al. propose a technique for summarizing longitudinal data using ... | 2005 | 15568186 |
| human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (hiv-1) and mycobacterium leprae co-infection: hiv-1 subtypes and clinical, immunologic, and histopathologic profiles in a brazilian cohort. | co-infections with human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) and mycobacterium leprae represent unique opportunities to investigate the interaction of both pathogens. we determined the immunologic, virologic, and histopathologic characteristics of 22 co-infected brazilian patients (median age = 38 years, 81.8% males, 72.2% with paucibacillary leprosy, and 95.4% with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). the hiv-1 subtypes b and bf predominated in envelope and gag heteroduplex mobility analysis. borderli ... | 2004 | 15569804 |
| mycobacterium leprae-induced demyelination: a model for early nerve degeneration. | the molecular events that occur at the early phase of many demyelinating neurodegenerative diseases are unknown. a recent demonstration of rapid demyelination and axonal injury induced by mycobacterium leprae provides a model for elucidating the molecular events of early nerve degeneration which might be common to neurodegenerative diseases of both infectious origin and unknown etiology. the identification of the m. leprae-targeted schwann cell receptor, dystroglycan, and its associated molecule ... | 2004 | 15245748 |
| [molecular epidemiology of the leprosy]. | application of molecular biological techniques to the epidemiological study of leprosy is described. studies of detecting mycobacterium leprae dna in samples of the nasal mucus are discussed in terms of the epidemiology and the significance of high prevalence. epidemiological studies on the transmission of leprosy and correlation between geographic distribution of different m. leprae rpot genotypes and prehistoric spread of the leprosy by genotyping based on the genomic polymorphism are introduc ... | 2004 | 15035063 |
| studies of lipoproteins of mycobacterium leprae. | the deciphering of the genomic sequence of mycobacterium leprae has made possible to predict the possible lipoproteins. the consensus sequence at the n-terminal region of the protein, including the cysteine residue to which the lipid moiety gets attached, provides a clue to the search. as such, more than 20 putative lipoproteins have been identified from mycobacterium leprae genomic sequence. lipoprotein lpk (accession no. ml0603) which encodes for 371 amino acid precursor protein, was identifie ... | 2004 | 15035064 |
| [ocular impairment in leprosy]. | leprosy causes several ocular disorders, and it also causes aftereffect with high frequency in various ways. primary impairment is the ocular disturbance caused with direct invasion of nerve and ocular tissue by mycobacterium leprae. secondary impairment is the complication of nerve paralysis and residual inflammation due to primary disorder. main work at japanese national leprosariums has been the control of primary and secondary impairment in recent years. clinical ophthalmic study in the lepr ... | 2004 | 15035065 |
| [global situation of leprosy and recent progress in molecular epidemiology of the disease]. | recent discovery of genetic diversity of mycobacterium leprae such as variable number of tandem repeats opened a new era in molecular epidemiology of leprosy infection. it was revealed that the leprosy bacillus in residential environment of endemic villages is an important source of infection. the global elimination strategy will be revised taking new molecular epidemiological knowledge into account. responsibility of leprosy specialist is to propose feasible control program to local administrat ... | 2004 | 15035066 |
| effect of mycobacterium leprae lipids on bcg- and carrageenan-induced cellular recruitment in mouse pleurisy. | pathogenic mycobacteria survive inside macrophages and deactivate these cells, using a mechanism that is still poorly understood. mycobacterial cell wall lipids constitute the first contact with the host cell. although mycobaterium leprae and m. bovis bcg share common antigens, they induce opposite inflammatory responses. apolar m. leprae lipids have been shown to be anti-inflammatory by down-regulating macrophage activation and t-cell functions. we wonder if these lipids would influence cellula ... | 2004 | 15527549 |
| microsatellite mapping of mycobacterium leprae populations in infected humans. | to investigate genetic diversity in a bacterial population, we measured the copy numbers of simple sequence repeats, or microsatellites, in mycobacterium leprae from patients living in and around hyderabad, india. three microsatellite loci containing trinucleotide or dinucleotide repeats were amplified from infected tissues, and the copy numbers were established by sequence analysis. extensive diversity was observed in a cross-sectional survey of 33 patients, but closely related profiles were fo ... | 2004 | 15528676 |
| detection of mycobacterium leprae dna by polymerase chain reaction in the blood and nasal secretion of brazilian household contacts. | dna samples from blood and nasal swabs of 125 healthy household contacts was submitted to amplification by polymerase chain reaction (pcr) using a mycobacterium leprae-specific sequence as a target for the detection of subclinical infection with m. leprae. all samples were submitted to hybridization analysis in order to exclude any false positive or negative results. two positive samples were confirmed from blood out of 119 (1.7%) and two positive samples from nasal secretion out of 120 (1.7%). ... | 2004 | 15543415 |
| genome reduction in prokaryotic obligatory intracellular parasites of humans: a comparative analysis. | obligatory intracellular parasites have undergone significant genome reduction by gene loss over time in the context of their obligate associations with the host. the flux, streamlining and elimination of genes in these genomes constitute a selective and ongoing process. comparative analyses of five completely sequenced obligatory intracellular parasite genomes reveal that these genomes display marked similarities in patterns of protein length and frequency distribution, with substantial sharing ... | 2004 | 15545414 |
| dna damage studies in untreated and treated leprosy patients. | the alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis assay was performed on peripheral blood lymphocytes of lepromatous and tubercloid leprosy patients (untreated and those undergoing treatment) in order to ascertain whether differential damage to dna occurs. the study group included 28 male and 2 female patients and 15 healthy males who were matched for age and socio-economic status. the results revealed dna damage in all patients, with a mean dna migration length of 29.88 +/- 3.39 microm and 38% of th ... | 2004 | 15548761 |
| [multibacillary leprosy recurrences]. | 2004 | 15551886 | |
| [diaminodiphenylsulfone resistance of mycobacterium leprae due to mutations in the dihydropteroate synthase gene]. | the relation between diaminodiphenylsulfone (called dapsone)-resistance and point mutations of the dihydropteroate synthase (dhps) gene was analyzed using dapsone resistant mycobacterium leprae isolates derived from japanese leprosy patients. the mutation was found at amino acid residues 53 or 55 of the dhps. this finding suggests that two specific mutations in the dhps gene involved in dapsone resistance of m. leprae. | 2004 | 15508724 |
| [multi-drug resistant mycobacterium leprae from patients with leprosy]. | dna sequences of mycobacterium leprae in particular regions of the gyra, rpob, and folp genes responsible for resistance to new quinolones, rifampicin and dapsone, respectively, were analyzed. among 88 isolates of m. leprae from leprosy patients in japan, haiti, indonesia, pakistan, and the philippines, eleven isolates had mutational changes in 2 genes (resistance to 2 drugs), and 2 isolates (shinsei-1 and zensho-4) showed mutations in 3 genes (resistance to 3 drugs). these findings are suggesti ... | 2004 | 15508725 |
| [functional changes of macrophages in hansen's disease]. | as an obligate intracellular pathogen, the principal host cells for mycobacterium leprae are mononuclear phagocytes or macrophages. the macrophage is a primitive cell type being found in both early and advanced life forms, and possesses a variety of functions, such as phagocytosis of invaded bacteria, production of cytokines, antigen presentation and tumor killing. hansen's disease is a chronic infectious disease characterized by specific host immune responses against m. leprae. in this article ... | 2004 | 15508728 |
| clinical, electroneuromyographic and morphological studies of pure neural leprosy in a brazilian referral centre. | nineteen patients with pure neural leprosy were analysed with clinical examination, electroneuromyography and histopathology of nerve biopsies. clinical examination showed sensory loss (78.9%), paresis (78.9%), nerve enlargement (68.4%) and nerve pain (42.1%). electroneuromyographic study revealed an axonal pattern in 18 patients (94.7%) and a demyelinating pattern in one (0.5%). mononeuropathy multiplex was the most frequent presentation (78.9%), followed by mononeuropathy simplex (10.5%) and p ... | 2004 | 15508901 |
| utility of serodiagnostic tests for leprosy: a study in an endemic population in south india. | in order to evaluate the usefulness of natural disaccharide (pgl1) and 35 kda antigens based serology in diagnosis of leprosy and in detecting high risk groups for leprosy, this study was conducted in an endemic population in south india. out of 3346 cases and their households and neighbouring household contacts, serum samples from 2994 and 2875 individuals were screened for antibodies against pgl1 and 35kda antigens respectively. while the overall positivity for contacts and leprosy cases was 3 ... | 2004 | 15508903 |
| mycobacterium leprae infection and serum lactoferrin levels. | serum lactoferrin level, using competitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (elisa) method, was estimated in 298 leprosy patients admitted into the hospital and attending the out-patient department of the schieffelin leprosy research and training center. serum from an equal number of non-leprosy individuals served as control. mean (sd) of serum lactoferrin in non-leprosy individuals was 0.277 (0-092) microg/ml while in leprosy patients it was 0.494 (0.394) microg/ml, the difference being signif ... | 2004 | 15508905 |
| detection of mycobacterium leprae dna for 36kda protein in urine from leprosy patients: a preliminary report. | we have searched for mycobacterium leprae dna for 36kda protein in urine using a m. leprae specific pcr technique. a limited number of 16 patients (of which 11 belonged to lepromatous leprosy and five to tuberculoid leprosy) and eight healthy individuals were included for the present study. the number of urine samples positive by pcr were 36.4% (4/11) in lepromatous patients and 40% (2/5) in tuberculoid patients. none of the samples from healthy individuals was positive. to our knowledge, the re ... | 2004 | 15517032 |
| cd1a and langerin: acting as more than langerhans cell markers. | langerhans cells (lcs) represent a unique dc subset populating the outermost body surface, i.e., the epidermis. although cd1a and langerin (cd207) are used as specific markers to distinguish lcs from other dc subsets, their immunological functions have remained mostly unknown. a new paper (see the related article beginning on page 701) demonstrates that lcs utilize these markers to induce cellular immune responses to mycobacterium leprae: cd1a mediates the presentation of nonpeptide antigens to ... | 2004 | 14991060 |
| langerhans cells utilize cd1a and langerin to efficiently present nonpeptide antigens to t cells. | langerhans cells (lcs) constitute a subset of dcs that initiate immune responses in skin. using leprosy as a model, we investigated whether expression of cd1a and langerin, an lc-specific c-type lectin, imparts a specific functional role to lcs. lc-like dcs and freshly isolated epidermal lcs presented nonpeptide antigens of mycobacterium leprae to t cell clones derived from a leprosy patient in a cd1a-restricted and langerin-dependent manner. lc-like dcs were more efficient at cd1a-restricted an ... | 2004 | 14991068 |
| zpicture: dynamic alignment and visualization tool for analyzing conservation profiles. | comparative sequence analysis has evolved as an essential technique for identifying functional coding and noncoding elements conserved throughout evolution. here, we introduce zpicture, an interactive web-based sequence alignment and visualization tool for dynamically generating conservation profiles and identifying evolutionarily conserved regions (ecrs). zpicture is highly flexible, because critical parameters can be modified interactively, allowing users to differentially predict ecrs in comp ... | 2004 | 14993211 |
| linkage analysis of susceptibility to leprosy type using an ibd regression method. | leprosy is a chronic disease caused by infection with mycobacterium leprae, which is manifested across a wide clinical spectrum. there is evidence that susceptibility both to leprosy per se and to the clinical type of leprosy is influenced by host genetic factors. this paper describes the application of an identity by descent regression search for genetic determinants of leprosy type among families from karonga district, northern malawi. suggestive evidence was found for linkage to leprosy type ... | 2004 | 15014432 |
| comparative proteomics of the mycobacterium leprae binding protein myelin p0: its implication in leprosy and other neurodegenerative diseases. | mycobacterium leprae, the causative agent of leprosy invades schwann cells of the peripheral nerves leading to nerve damage and disfigurement, which is the hallmark of the disease. wet experiments have shown that m. leprae binds to a major peripheral nerve protein, the myelin p zero (p0). this protein is specific to peripheral nerve and may be important in the initial step of m. leprae binding and invasion of schwann cells which is the feature of leprosy. though the receptors on schawann cells, ... | 2004 | 15019586 |
| immunological crossreactivity of the mycobacterium leprae cfp-10 with its homologue in mycobacterium tuberculosis. | mycobacterium tuberculosis culture filtrate protein-10 (cfp-10) (rv3874) is considered a promising antigen for the immunodiagnosis of tuberculosis (tb) together with early secreted antigens of m. tuberculosis (esat-6). both esat-6 and cfp-10 are encoded by the rd1 region that is deleted from all tested m. bovis bacille calmette-guérin (bcg) strains but present in m. leprae, m. tuberculosis, m. bovis, m. kansasii, m. africanum and m. marinum. in this study, the homologue of cfp-10 in m. leprae (m ... | 2004 | 14723623 |
| nitrotyrosine localization to dermal nerves in borderline leprosy. | nerve damage is a common and disabling feature of leprosy, with unclear aetiology. it has been reported that the peroxidizing agents of myelin lipids-nitric oxide (no) and peroxynitrite-are produced in leprosy skin lesions. | 2004 | 15030344 |
| population survey to determine risk factors for mycobacterium leprae transmission and infection. | not every leprosy patient is equally effective in transmitting mycobacterium leprae. we studied the spatial distribution of infection (using seropositivity as a marker) in the population to identify which disease characteristics of leprosy patients are important in transmission. | 2004 | 15256520 |
| truncated structural variants of lipoarabinomannan in mycobacterium leprae and an ethambutol-resistant strain of mycobacterium tuberculosis. | current knowledge on the structure of lipoarabinomannan (lam) has resulted primarily from detailed studies on a few selected laboratory strains of mycobacterium tuberculosis, mycobacterium bovis bcg, and mycobacterium smegmatis. our previous work was the first to report on the salient structural features of m. tuberculosis clinical isolates and demonstrated significant structural variations. a prime effort is to correlate a particular structural characteristic with observed differences in elicit ... | 2004 | 15263002 |
| differential production of interleukin-10 and interleukin-12 in mononuclear cells from leprosy patients with a toll-like receptor 2 mutation. | toll-like receptor 2 (tlr2) is a key mediator of the immune response to mycobacterial infections, and mutations in tlr2 have been shown to confer susceptibility to infection with mycobacteria. this study investigated the profiles of cytokines, such as interferon (ifn)-gamma, interleukin (il)-10, il-12 and tumour necrosis factor (tnf)-alpha in response to mycobacterium leprae in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (pbmc) with the tlr2 mutation arg677trp, a recently reported polymorphism that is as ... | 2004 | 15270740 |
| patterns of intracellular cytokines in cd4 and cd8 t cells from patients with mycobacterial infections. | using a short-term bulk culture protocol designed for an intracellular-staining method based on a flow cytometry approach to the frequencies of cytokine-producing cells from tuberculosis and leprosy patients, we found distinct patterns of t cell subset expression. the method also reveals the profile of peak cytokine production and can provide simultaneous information about the phenotype of cytokine-producing cells, providing a reliable assay for monitoring the immunity of these patients. the imm ... | 2004 | 15273814 |
| isolated superficial peroneal nerve lesion in pure neural leprosy: case report. | patients with leprosy may have only nerve involvement without skin changes. these cases are known as pure neural leprosy and can be seen in 10% of leprosy patients. most patients have mononeuritic or multiple mononeuritic neuropathy patterns. the isolated lesion of the superficial peroneal nerve is uncommonly seen. we report a patient with involvement of this nerve in which there was no thickening of superficial nerves. the performed nerve biopsy showed inflammatory infiltration, loss of fibers ... | 2004 | 15273859 |
| molecular detection of drug resistance in mycobacterium leprae. | 2004 | 15282962 | |
| a strategy to improve the ml flow test for detection of anti-phenolic glycolipid-1 antibodies. | 2004 | 15282973 | |
| involvement of c4 allotypes in the pathogenesis of human diseases. | the complement system is an important humoral defense mechanism that plays a relevant role against microbial agents, inflammatory response control, and immunocomplex clearance. classical complement pathway activation is antibody-dependent. the c4 component participates in the initial step of activation, and c4 expression is determined by 2 pairs of allotypes: c4a and c4b. deficiencies in c4 allotypes have been associated with several diseases. the aim of the present review is evaluate the report ... | 2004 | 15286835 |
| leprosy accidentally transmitted from a patient to a surgeon in a nonendemic area. | 2004 | 15289237 | |
| characterization of three glycosyltransferases involved in the biosynthesis of the phenolic glycolipid antigens from the mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. | mycobacterium tuberculosis and mycobacterium leprae, the two main mycobacterial pathogens in humans, produce highly specific long chain beta-diols, the dimycocerosates of phthiocerol, and structurally related phenolic glycolipid (pgl) antigens, which are important virulence factors. in addition, m. tuberculosis also secretes glycosylated p-hydroxybenzoic acid methyl esters (p-hbad) that contain the same carbohydrate moiety as the species-specific pgl of m. tuberculosis (pgl-tb). the genes involv ... | 2004 | 15292272 |
| end-stage renal disease in leprosy. | leprosy or hansen's disease (had) undoubtedly remains an emergency in certain countries. it is an ancient deforming disease caused by mycobacterium leprae. the countries with the highest endemic leprosy rate in 2000 were brazil, india and madagascar. in italy, the old epidemic has been defeated and there are approximately 400 patients under constant monitoring with three to four new cases per year involving italian residents. the kidney is one of the target organs during the splanchnic localizat ... | 2004 | 15293533 |
| improved protocol for pcr detection of mycobacterium leprae in buffered formalin-fixed skin biopsies. | 2004 | 15301582 | |
| should large lesions of leprosy be considered as "multibacillary" for treatment purposes even if the total number of lesions is less than five? | 2004 | 15301583 | |
| neuropathic pain in leprosy. | neuropathic pain appears to be much more common in leprosy than has been generally appreciated. emphasis in leprosy control programs has been on the distribution of multi-drug therapy, on early and better detection, and on the prevention of disability related to anesthetic limbs. most have thus been inattentive to the problem of neuropathic pain in leprosy patients. neuropathic pain does not respond to the usual analgesics employed for reactions, for example, and so it is important that those tr ... | 2004 | 15301584 |
| classification of leprosy: a full color spectrum, or black and white? | 2004 | 15301586 | |
| leprosy reactions: humoral and cellular immune responses to m. leprae, 65kda, 28kda, and 18 kda antigens. | this study examines the immune responses against some stress proteins of mycobacterium leprae in leprosy patients with and without leprosy reactions. leprosy patients showed a higher level of antibodies to all antigens compared to healthy controls. the antibody response to 18kda antigen was significantly higher in patients with type 1 reaction compared to those of tt or borderline patients without type 1 reaction, or those with type 2 reaction. borderline (bt/bl), lepromatous (ll) and patients w ... | 2004 | 15301588 |
| single nucleotide polymorphisms (snps) at -238 and -308 positions in the tnfalpha promoter: clinical and bacteriological evaluation in leprosy. | tumor necrosis factor alpha (tnfalpha) plays a key role in orchestrating the complex events involved in inflammation and immune response. the presence of single nucleotide polymorphisms (snps) within the promoter region of the tnfa gene has been associated with a number of diseases. the aim of this study was to investigate the distribution of polymorphisms at positions -238 (g/a) and -308 (g/a) at the tnfalpha promoter, and its association to the outcome of different clinical forms of leprosy. f ... | 2004 | 15301589 |
| neuropathic pain in leprosy patients. | the introduction of multidrug therapy by the world health organization has dramatically reduced the world prevalence of leprosy but the disease is still a public health problem in many countries, with a world prevalence of almost 600,000 cases in 2001. damage to peripheral nerves is a key component of leprosy and the sensory and motor loss that follows is the basis for many of the classical features of this disease, such as skin wounds, cracks, plantar ulcers, clawed hands, drop foot, and incomp ... | 2004 | 15301591 |
| epidemiological characteristics of leprosy reactions: 15 years experience from north india. | a retrospective analysis of patient's leprosy clinic records at pgimer, chandigarh, india for the period 1983 to 1998 was undertaken to study the frequency, time of onset, and risk factors for leprosy reactions. of the 2600 cases analyzed, 1494 were multibacillary and 1106 had paucibacillary disease. presentation with reaction was common with 30.9% of our patients having reactions at the time of first visit. the incidence of reversal reaction (rr) was highest during 6 to 12 months after starting ... | 2004 | 15301592 |
| acyl-coa carboxylases (accd2 and accd3), together with a unique polyketide synthase (cg-pks), are key to mycolic acid biosynthesis in corynebacterianeae such as corynebacterium glutamicum and mycobacterium tuberculosis. | the corynebacterianeae such as corynebacterium glutamicum and mycobacterium tuberculosis possess several unique and structurally diverse lipids, including the genus-specific mycolic acids. although the function of a number of genes involved in fatty acid and mycolic acid biosynthesis is known, information relevant to the initial steps within these biosynthetic pathways is relatively sparse. interestingly, the genomes of corynebacterianeae possess a high number of accd genes, whose gene products ... | 2004 | 15308633 |
| immune regulatory effect of phsp65 dna therapy in pulmonary tuberculosis: activation of cd8+ cells, interferon-gamma recovery and reduction of lung injury. | a dna vaccine based on the heat-shock protein 65 mycobacterium leprae gene (phsp65) presented a prophylactic and therapeutic effect in an experimental model of tuberculosis. in this paper, we addressed the question of which protective mechanisms are activated in mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected mice after immune therapy with phsp65. we evaluated activation of the cellular immune response in the lungs of infected mice 30 days after infection (initiation of immune therapy) and in those of uninf ... | 2004 | 15312144 |
| upregulation of t-cell-stimulating activity of mycobacteria-infected macrophages. | macrophages are one of the most abundant host cells to come in contact with mycobacteria. however, the infected macrophages less efficiently stimulate autologous t cells in vitro. we investigated the effect of the induction of phenotypic change of macrophages on the host cell activities by using mycobacterium leprae as a pathogen. the treatment of macrophages with interferon-gamma (ifn-gamma), gm-csf and interleukin-4 deprived macrophages of cd14 antigen expression but instead provided them with ... | 2004 | 15320885 |
| genes required for intrinsic multidrug resistance in mycobacterium avium. | genes required for intrinsic multidrug resistance by mycobacterium avium were identified by screening a library of transposon insertion mutants for the inability to grow in the presence of ciprofloxacin, clarithromycin, and penicillin at subinhibitory concentrations. two genes, pks12 and maa2520, were disrupted in multiple drug-susceptible mutants. the pks12 gene (maa1979), which may be cotranscribed with a downstream gene (maa1980), is widely conserved in the actinomycetes. its ortholog in myco ... | 2004 | 15328105 |
| role of the polypeptide region of a 33kda mycobacterial lipoprotein for efficient il-12 production. | mycobacterium leprae lipoprotein, lpk, induced il-12 production from human monocytes. to determine the components essential for cytokine production and the relative role of lipidation in the activation process, we produced lipidated and non-lipidated truncated forms of lpk. while 0.5nm of lipidated lpk-a having n-terminal 60 amino acids of lpk produced more than 700pg/ml il-12 p40, the non-lipidated lpk-b having the same amino acids as that of lpk-a required more than 20nm of the protein to prod ... | 2004 | 15331324 |
| an update on the diagnosis and treatment of leprosy. | 2004 | 15337986 | |
| leprous osteitis presenting as bone cyst and erosions. | a 30-year-old man presented to the hansen outpatient department with swelling and ulceration of toes for 2 months and swelling of the right fifth and fourth fingers and the left second finger for 1 month. in addition to skin lesions of lepromatous leprosy (subpolar type), there was nontender, non-fluctuant swelling of the right fifth and fourth fingers and left second finger. skin over the right fifth finger showed sinus-like openings with associated purulent discharge. he also had swelling and ... | 2004 | 15347499 |
| metal ion transport and regulation in mycobacterium tuberculosis. | the regulation of metal ion concentrations is central to the physiology of the interaction between pathogenic bacteria and their hosts. apart from the nramp orthologue, mnth, metal ion transporters in mycobacterium tuberculosis have not been studied. mn, the physiological substrate of mnth in other bacteria, may play an important role as a structural and redox-active cofactor in a wide range of metabolic processes. fe, cu and zn play structural and catalytic roles in metalloenzymes involved in o ... | 2004 | 15353332 |
| activation of signaling lymphocytic activation molecule triggers a signaling cascade that enhances th1 responses in human intracellular infection. | t cell production of ifn-gamma contributes to host defense against infection by intracellular pathogens, including mycobacteria. lepromatous leprosy, the disseminated form of infection caused by mycobacterium leprae, is characterized by loss of cellular response against the pathogen and diminished th1 cytokine production. relieving bacterial burden in ag-unresponsive patients might be achieved through alternative receptors that stimulate ifn-gamma production. we have previously shown that ligati ... | 2004 | 15356162 |
| mycobacterium leprae infection of human schwann cells depends on selective host kinases and pathogen-modulated endocytic pathways. | mycobacterium leprae, an obligate intracellular pathogen, shows a unique tropism for schwann cells (sc). this leads to the peripheral neuropathy disorder observed in leprosy. in this study, we investigated signal transduction events and the intracellular fate of m. leprae during the interaction of the microorganism with sc. first, we demonstrated that the human schwannoma cell line st88-14 readily phagocytized the bacteria as observed by time-lapse microscopy, actin staining and electron microsc ... | 2004 | 15358430 |
| prospective study of serological conversion as a risk factor for development of leprosy among household contacts. | although the prevalence of leprosy has declined over the years, there is no evidence that incidence rates are falling. a method of early detection of those people prone to develop the most infectious form of leprosy would contribute to breaking the chain of transmission. prophylactic treatment of serologically identified high-risk contacts of incident patients should be an operationally feasible approach for routine control programs. in addition, classification of high-risk household contacts wi ... | 2004 | 15358649 |
| [erythema nodosum leprosum case series report: clinical profile, immunological basis and treatment implemented in health services]. | erythema nodosum leprosum is an acute inflammatory event in the chronic course of leprosy. it is considered an immunological disorder and an important cause of morbidity and disability. we evaluate the clinical profile, serology and histopathology 58 erythema nodosum leprosum patients sequentially recruited, from july- december 2000, in an endemic area in central brazil (goiás state). half of the reactins were considered severe and 66% of the cases had the first episode of reaction during specif ... | 2004 | 15361954 |
| leprosy and the peripheral nervous system: basic and clinical aspects. | leprosy is one of the most common causes of nontraumatic peripheral neuropathy in the developing world. the causative agent, mycobacterium leprae, has a predilection for schwann cells, where the organism multiplies unimpeded by organism-specific host immunity, resulting in destruction of myelin, secondary inflammatory changes, and destruction of the nerve architecture. the cardinal diagnostic features of leprosy are anesthetic skin lesions, neuropathy, and positive skin smears for the bacilli. h ... | 2004 | 15372437 |
| continued proteomic analysis of mycobacterium leprae subcellular fractions. | recently the sequence of the mycobacterium leprae chromosome, the only known obligate intracellular mycobacterium, was completed. it has a dramatic reduction in functional genes, with a coding capacity of only 49.5%, the lowest one so far observed among bacterial genomes. the leprosy bacillus seems to preserve a minimal set of genes that allows its survival in the host. the identification of genes that are actually expressed by the bacterium is of high significance in the context of mycobacteria ... | 2004 | 15378742 |
| identification of mycobacterium avium genes up-regulated in cultured macrophages and in mice. | to investigate mycobacterium avium gene expression upon infection of macrophages, we created a m. avium-promoter library upstream of a promoter-less gene encoding the green fluorescent protein (gfp) in mycobacterium smegmatis. clones were evaluated for increased expression of gfp after infection of u937 macrophages. a number of m. avium genes were up-regulated more than 3-fold after 24 and 48 h following macrophage infection. m. avium genes expressed by m. smegmatis during growth in macrophages ... | 2004 | 15451099 |
| a rational approach to nasal reconstruction in leprosy. | destruction of the nasal septum and nasal bones by mycobacterium leprae and subsequent infection is still seen regularly in leprosy endemic areas. the social stigma associated with this deformity is significant. many different procedures have been developed to reconstruct the nose. patients operated on at anandaban hospital and the green pastures hospital and rehabilitation center between 1986 and 2001 were reviewed. there were 48 patients with an average age of 47 years. five deformities were m ... | 2004 | 15468392 |
| an approach to understanding the transmission of mycobacterium leprae using molecular and immunological methods: results from the milep2 study. | the current strategy for leprosy control using case detection and treatment has greatly reduced the prevalence of leprosy, but has had no demonstrable effect on interrupting transmission. | 2004 | 15485283 |
| in situ hybridization in the histological diagnosis of early and clinically suspect leprosy. | the present study tests the utility of the in situ hybridization procedure for m. leprae rrna in the histological diagnosis of early leprosy and clinically suspect leprosy, both diagnostically demanding situations. the histological confirmation obtained with routine histopathology (haematoxylin-eosin staining for studying morphologic alterations and fite-faraco staining for demonstration of acid-fast bacilli) were 32% for early leprosy and 25% for clinically suspect leprosy. with performance of ... | 2004 | 15485287 |
| commentary: is it really m. leprae? | 2004 | 15485289 | |
| false positive reaction of the immunohistochemistry technique using anti-bcg polyclonal antibodies to identify mycobacterium leprae in wild nine-banded armadillos. | the authors studied 66 wild nine-banded armadillos from brazil. the ear samples were collected and ziehl-neelsen or fite-faraco stains were performed, as well as immunostaining using polyclonal bcg antibody, to avaluate the presence of the mycobacterium leprae. the afb were not detected by the ziehl-neelsen or fite-faraco staining, neither immunoexpression of the bcg marker. however, many normal structures from the ears of the nine-banded armadillos, such as condrocytes, condroblasts, fibroblast ... | 2004 | 15485291 |
| clinico-histopathological correlation of skin and nerve in leprosy. | the histopathological features of skin tissue sections in patients clinically diagnosed as leprosy were correlated with the histopathological features of nerve specimens obtained from the same patients. fifty untreated leprosy patients attending the outpatient department of the department of dermatology and sexually transmitted diseases of smt. sucheta kriplani and kalawati saran children's hospitals, new delhi, india were included in the study. on correlating the histological features of skin a ... | 2004 | 15492436 |
| nk cells modulate the cytotoxic activity generated by mycobacterium leprae-hsp65 in leprosy patients: role of il-18 and il-13. | protection against intracellular pathogens such as mycobacterium leprae is critically dependent on the function of nk cells at early stages of the immune response and on th1 cells at later stages. in the present report we evaluated the role of il-18 and il-13, two cytokines that can influence nk cell activity, in the generation of m. leprae-derived hsp65-cytotoxic t lymphocytes (ctl) from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (pbmc) of leprosy patients. we demonstrated that il-18 modulates hsp65-in ... | 2004 | 14678270 |
| effects of anti-endothelial cell antibodies in leprosy and malaria. | as a result of damaging endothelial cells (ecs), mycobacterium leprae triggers the production of antibodies (abs). these anti-ec abs (aecas) can be divided into two types. the first type nonspecifically reacts with components of the cytosol (cy) and can be detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa). the second specifically reacts with the ec membrane (mb) and requires fluorescence-activated cell sorter (facs) analysis to be detected. the presence of both types of aecas was determined ... | 2004 | 14688109 |
| a polyketide synthase catalyzes the last condensation step of mycolic acid biosynthesis in mycobacteria and related organisms. | mycolic acids are major and specific constituents of the cell envelope of corynebacterineae, a suborder of bacterial species including several important human pathogens such as mycobacterium tuberculosis, mycobacterium leprae, or corynebacterium diphtheriae. these long-chain fatty acids are involved in the unusual architecture and impermeability of the cell envelope of these bacteria. the condensase, the enzyme responsible for the final condensation step in mycolic acid biosynthesis, has remaine ... | 2004 | 14695899 |
| did the loss of two-component systems initiate pseudogene accumulation in mycobacterium leprae? | 2004 | 14702392 | |
| leprosy: a primer for canadian physicians. | leprosy is a rare but serious infectious disease caused by mycobacterium leprae. while global prevalence of the disease is decreasing, increasing rates of immigration from countries where leprosy is endemic have led to the recognition of this illness in north america. classically, leprosy presents as hypopigmented cutaneous macules along with sensory and motor peripheral neuropathies, although the clinical manifestations vary along a disease spectrum. in addition to primary infection, patients m ... | 2004 | 14707226 |
| expression of protein gene product 9.5 in lepromatous eyes showing ciliary body nerve damage and a "dying back" phenomenon in the posterior ciliary nerves. | peripheral nerve destruction is the hallmark of leprosy. ocular complications form a substantial part of the clinical manifestations but histopathology of nerve destruction within ocular structures has not been shown satisfactorily. the role of protein gene product (pgp) 9.5 in identifying nerve destruction in the ciliary body and posterior ciliary nerves of lepromatous eyes is shown. | 2004 | 14736767 |
| susceptibility to leprosy is associated with park2 and pacrg. | leprosy is caused by mycobacterium leprae and affects about 700,000 individuals each year. it has long been thought that leprosy has a strong genetic component, and recently we mapped a leprosy susceptibility locus to chromosome 6 region q25-q26 (ref. 3). here we investigate this region further by using a systematic association scan of the chromosomal interval most likely to harbour this leprosy susceptibility locus. in 197 vietnamese families we found a significant association between leprosy a ... | 2004 | 14737177 |
| [hypopigmented cutaneous lesions in a black immigrant]. | 2004 | 14746759 | |
| leprosy (hansen's disease). | leprosy (hansen's disease) causes the most common treatable form of neuropathy in the world. several endemic countries account for the majority of the world's cases and most of the cases seen in the us are amongst immigrants. however, endemic cases of leprosy occur in the us. the pathogen is mycobacterium leprae, a slow-growing, obligate intracellular pathogen that consistently infects skin and peripheral nerves. the clinical appearance of the skin and neurologic deficits develop months to years ... | 2004 | 14759342 |
| a brief history of the discovery of natural simian immunodeficiency virus (siv) infections in captive sooty mangabey monkeys. | experimental leprosy studies using mycobacterium leprae inoculum isolated from a sooty mangabey monkey (smm) resulted in the accidental discovery that smm's asymptomatically carry simian immunodeficiency virus (siv) that is pathogenic in macaques. we showed that the smm virus, sivdelta, was antigenically related to sivmac, which had been identified in macaques, and to the human immunodeficiency virus (hiv). similar asymptomatic natural siv infections had been reported in african green monkeys (a ... | 2004 | 14766361 |
| genotyping of mycobacterium leprae on the basis of the polymorphism of ttc repeats for analysis of leprosy transmission. | the polymorphism of ttc repeats in mycobacterium leprae was examined using the bacilli obtained from residents in villages at north maluku where m. leprae infections are highly endemic (as well as from patients at north sulawesi of indonesia) to elucidate the possible mode of leprosy transmission. ttc genotypes are stable for several generations of passages in nude mice footpads and, hence, are feasible for the genotyping of isolates and epidemiological analysis of leprosy transmission. it was f ... | 2004 | 14766846 |
| macro-array and bioinformatic analyses reveal mycobacterial 'core' genes, variation in the esat-6 gene family and new phylogenetic markers for the mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. | to better understand the biology and the virulence determinants of the two major mycobacterial human pathogens mycobacterium tuberculosis and mycobacterium leprae, their genome sequences have been determined recently. in silico comparisons revealed that among the 1439 genes common to both m. tuberculosis and m. leprae, 219 genes code for proteins that show no similarity with proteins from other organisms. therefore, the latter 'core' genes could be specific for mycobacteria or even for the intra ... | 2004 | 14766927 |
| establishment of a functional genomics platform for leifsonia xyli subsp. xyli. | leifsonia xyli subsp. xyli, the causal agent of ratoon stunting disease in sugarcane, is a xylem-limited, nutritionally fastidious, slow growing, gram-positive coryneform bacterium. because of the difficulties in growing this bacterium in pure culture, little is known about the molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis. currently, the genome sequence of l. xyli subsp. xyli is being completed by the agronomical and environmental genomes group from the organization for nucleotide sequencing and analysi ... | 2004 | 14964531 |
| a case study in hansen's disease acquired after heart transplant. | hansen's disease, leprosy, is a chronic infectious disease caused by the acid-fast bacillus mycobacterium leprae. there are multiple forms of the disease ranging from the relatively benign to the progressive, malignant lepromatous leprosy. there is effective antimicrobial treatment available that is capable of curing the disease. we report the case of a post heart transplant patient acquiring hansen's disease. | 2004 | 14974527 |
| expression of costimulatory molecules (cd80, cd86, cd28, cd152), accessory molecules (tcr alphabeta, tcr gammadelta) and t cell lineage molecules (cd4+, cd8+) in pbmc of leprosy patients using mycobacterium leprae antigen (mlcwa) with murabutide and t cell peptide of trat protein. | in leprosy, cell-mediated immunity (cmi) is more significant than humoral response to eliminate intracellular pathogen. t cell defect is a common feature in lepromatous leprosy (ll) patients as compared to tuberculoid type (tt) patients. for efficient initiation of cd4+, t cell response requires t cell receptor (tcr) activation and costimulation provided by molecules on antigen-presenting cells (apc) and their counter receptors on t cells. in our previous study, the defective t cell function in ... | 2004 | 14975355 |
| immune profiling of leprosy and tuberculosis patients to 15-mer peptides of mycobacterium leprae and m. tuberculosis groes in a bcg vaccinated area: implications for development of vaccine and diagnostic reagents. | mycobacterium leprae (ml) groes has been shown to induce strong t cell responses in tuberculoid as well as in exposed healthy contacts of leprosy patients, and therefore this antigen has been the focus of study as a potential vaccine candidate. paradoxically, we have shown that ml groes also induces extremely high titres of igg1 antibody in leprosy patients across the disease spectrum, a response associated with disease progression. igg1 antibodies in leprosy also show a negative association wit ... | 2004 | 15056384 |
| high expression of myeloid-related proteins 8 and 14 characterizes an inflammatorily active but ineffective response of macrophages during leprosy. | macrophages are decisive cells for the course of leprosy as they phagocytose mycobacterium leprae and have the potential to influence the specific immune response. expression and release of the myeloid-related protein (mrp) 8 and mrp14 (s100a8 and s100a9) characterize a proinflammatory subtype of macrophage that is prominent in, for example, murine infection with lack of a t helper 1 cell response and in certain highly active chronic inflammations of mice and humans. we investigated cutaneous bi ... | 2004 | 15056385 |
| effect of listeriolysin o-loaded erythrocytes on mycobacterium avium replication within macrophages. | to evaluate the efficacy of erythrocytes loaded with the haemolytic toxin listeriolysin o against mycobacterium avium replication within human macrophages. | 2004 | 15056645 |
| multiple polymorphic loci for molecular typing of strains of mycobacterium leprae. | the need for molecular tools for the differentiation of isolates of mycobacterium leprae, the organism that causes leprosy, is urgent in view of the continuing high levels of new case detection, despite years of aggressive chemotherapy and the consequent reduction in the prevalence of leprosy. the slow onset of leprosy and the reliance on physical examination for detection of disease have restricted the epidemiological tracking necessary to understand and control transmission. two genetic loci i ... | 2004 | 15071023 |
| [current management of hand leprosy]. | leprosy, a chronic infectious disease caused by mycobacterium leprae affects an estimated 700,000 persons each year. clinically, leprosy can be categorized as paucibacillary or multibacillary disease. leprosy is important largely because of the deformities, disabilities and handicap it causes in a proportion of those affected by the disease. there are surgical procedures and techniques to correct or limit the deterioration of these conditions. in the past these surgical procedures were only perf ... | 2004 | 15071961 |
| colorimetric microtitre plate hybridization assay for the detection of mycobacterium leprae 16s rrna in clinical specimens. | we have developed a colorimetric microtitre plate hybridization assay in order to simplify detection of mycobacterium leprae in clinical specimens. this system detects the products amplified by a sensitive rt-pcr assay targeting a species-specific sequence of the bacterial 16s rrna. the assay detected as few as 10 bacilli isolated from infected nude mouse lymph nodes or human skin biopsies. sensitivity for diagnosis of clinical specimens was assessed for 58 tissue biopsies from untreated leprosy ... | 2004 | 15072125 |
| leprosy. | leprosy remains an important health problem worldwide. the disease is caused by a chronic granulomatous infection of the skin and peripheral nerves with mycobacterium leprae. the clinical range from tuberculoid to lepromatous leprosy is a result of variation in the cellular immune response to the mycobacterium. the resulting impairment of nerve function causes the disabilities associated with leprosy. this review summarises recent advances in understanding of the biology of leprosy, clinical fea ... | 2004 | 15081655 |