Publications
| Title | Abstract | Year(sorted descending) Filter | PMID Filter |
|---|
| mycobacterium leprae-infected macrophages preferentially primed regulatory t cell responses and was associated with lepromatous leprosy. | the persistence of mycobacterium leprae (m. leprae) infection is largely dependent on the types of host immune responses being induced. macrophage, a crucial modulator of innate and adaptive immune responses, could be directly infected by m. leprae. we therefore postulated that m. leprae-infected macrophages might have altered immune functions. | 2016 | 26751388 |
| complement activation in leprosy: a retrospective study shows elevated circulating terminal complement complex in reactional leprosy. | mycobacterium leprae infection gives rise to the immunologically and histopathologically classified spectrum of leprosy. at present, several tools for the stratification of patients are based on acquired immunity markers. however, the role of innate immunity, particularly the complement system, is largely unexplored. the present retrospective study was undertaken to explore whether the systemic levels of complement activation components and regulators can stratify leprosy patients, particularly ... | 2016 | 26749503 |
| leprous neuromyositis: a rare clinical entity and review of the literature. | mycobacterium leprae, the causative agent of leprosy (hansen's disease), is a slow growing intracellular acid-fast bacillus that affects the skin, peripheral nerves and respiratory tract. in patients with suppressed cell-mediated immunity, the infiltration of the bacilli can produce disseminated illness such as leprous neuromyositis. we reported a case of 56-year-old gentleman presenting with pyrexia of unknown origin, asymmetric sensory motor axonal polyneuropathy and was on chronic exogenous s ... | 2016 | 26776128 |
| advances in leprosy immunology and the field application: a gap to bridge. | advances concerning the hosts' immune response to mycobacterium leprae infection have focused on elucidating the immune pathomechanisms involved, with the hope that predictive diagnostic and prognostic parameters (biomarkers) for field use would emerge; however, improvements in our understanding of the immunologic responses to this complex disease have, to date, somewhat failed to provide the effective and robust methods for improving its predictive diagnosis in the field situation, particularly ... | 2016 | 26773628 |
| history of chemotherapy of leprosy. | chemotherapy of leprosy over the past 70 years has passed through several phases, from sulfones, to clofazimine, and to highly bactericidal drugs like rifampicin. the use particularly of the more potent drugs in effective combinations and the development of standard multidrug therapy regimens have made a huge difference in the successful treatment of leprosy as well as in reducing tremendously the prevalence of leprosy globally. a major contributing factor to development of better drugs and drug ... | 2016 | 26773621 |
| epidemiologic trends of leprosy for the 21st century. | major gaps still exist in the knowledge about leprosy, particularly with regard to how it spreads. leprosy epidemiology remains complicated due to the specific characteristics of mycobacterium leprae. to describe epidemiologic trends for the 21st century, the first part of this paper gives an overview of the epidemiology of leprosy, followed by past trends and the present situation of new-case detection as a proxy of the incidence. the third part, regarding predicted epidemiologic trends for the ... | 2016 | 26773620 |
| integrative analyses of leprosy susceptibility genes indicate a common autoimmune profile. | leprosy is an ancient chronic infection in the skin and peripheral nerves caused by mycobacterium leprae. the development of leprosy depends on genetic background and the immune status of the host. however, there is no systematic view focusing on the biological pathways, interaction networks and overall expression pattern of leprosy-related immune and genetic factors. | 2016 | 26805555 |
| essentiality assessment of cysteinyl and lysyl-trna synthetases of mycobacterium smegmatis. | discovery of mupirocin, an antibiotic that targets isoleucyl-trna synthetase, established aminoacyl-trna synthetase as an attractive target for the discovery of novel antibacterial agents. despite a high degree of similarity between the bacterial and human aminoacyl-trna synthetases, the selectivity observed with mupirocin triggered the possibility of targeting other aminoacyl-trna synthetases as potential drug targets. these enzymes catalyse the condensation of a specific amino acid to its cogn ... | 2016 | 26794499 |
| mycobacterial disease in patients with chronic granulomatous disease: a retrospective analysis of 71 cases. | chronic granulomatous disease (cgd) is a rare primary immunodeficiency caused by inborn errors of the phagocyte nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase complex. from the first year of life onward, most affected patients display multiple, severe, and recurrent infections caused by bacteria and fungi. mycobacterial infections have also been reported in some patients. | 2016 | 26936803 |
| exploratory urinary metabolomics of type 1 leprosy reactions. | leprosy is an infectious disease caused by mycobacterium leprae that affects the skin and nerves. although curable with multidrug therapy, leprosy is complicated by acute inflammatory episodes called reactions, which are the major causes of irreversible neuropathy in leprosy that occur before, during, and even after treatment. early diagnosis and prompt treatment of reactions reduces the risk of permanent disability. | 2016 | 26923082 |
| development of type 2, but not type 1, leprosy reactions is associated with a severe reduction of circulating and in situ regulatory t-cells. | leprosy is frequently complicated by the appearance of reactions that are difficult to treat and are the main cause of sequelae. we speculated that disturbances in regulatory t-cells (tregs) could play a role in leprosy reactions. we determined the frequency of circulating tregs in patients with type 1 reaction (t1r) and type 2 reaction (t2r). the in situ frequency of tregs and interleukin (il)-17, il-6, and transforming growth factor beta (tgf)-β-expressing cells was also determined. t2r patien ... | 2016 | 26903606 |
| inflammatory cytokines are involved in focal demyelination in leprosy neuritis. | mycobacterium leprae (ml) infection causes nerve damage that often leads to permanent loss of cutaneous sensitivity and limb deformities, but understanding of the pathogenesis of leprous neuropathy that would lead to more effective treatments is incomplete. we studied reactional leprosy patients with (n = 9) and without (n = 8) acute neuritis. nerve conduction studies over the course of the reactional episode showed the findings of demyelination in all patients with neuritis. evaluation of patie ... | 2016 | 26888306 |
| leveraging advances in tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment to address nontuberculous mycobacterial disease. | the nontuberculous mycobacteria (ntm), defined as any mycobacterial pathogen other than mycobacterium tuberculosis or mycobacterium leprae, are a diverse group of pathogens that collectively cause a substantive but often unappreciated worldwide burden of illness. although ntms may cause illness similar to m. tuberculosis, these pathogens generally do not respond to classic tuberculosis (tb) drug regimens, resulting in misdiagnosis and poor treatment, particularly in resource-poor settings. altho ... | 2016 | 26886068 |
| a missense lrrk2 variant is a risk factor for excessive inflammatory responses in leprosy. | depending on the epidemiological setting, a variable proportion of leprosy patients will suffer from excessive pro-inflammatory responses, termed type-1 reactions (t1r). the lrrk2 gene encodes a multi-functional protein that has been shown to modulate pro-inflammatory responses. variants near the lrrk2 gene have been associated with leprosy in some but not in other studies. we hypothesized that lrrk2 was a t1r susceptibility gene and that inconsistent association results might reflect different ... | 2016 | 26844546 |
| the -308 bp tnf gene polymorphism influences tumor necrosis factor expression in leprosy patients in bahia state, brazil. | leprosy or hansen's disease is a debilitating chronic granulomatous disease caused by mycobacterium leprae, with high incidence and prevalence in brazil. the -308 bp g/a single nucleotide polymorphism (snp rs1800629) in the tumor necrosis factor (tnf) gene promoter is a proposed risk factor for leprosy. in brazil, northern india, egypt and nepal, the common g allele was associated with leprosy. in eastern india, thailand and malawi the minor a allele was the risk factor. allele a was previously ... | 2016 | 26829382 |
| correlation between nerve growth factor and tissue expression of il-17 in leprosy. | leprosy is a serious public health problem in peripheral and developing countries. leprosy is a chronic infectious-contagious disease caused by the intracellular, bacillus mycobacterium leprae, which causes tissue damage and demyelination of peripheral nerves. recent studies have demonstrated the participation of new subtype's cytokines profile in the inflammatory response of leprosy. since nerve functions are affected by inflammatory response during the course of leprosy, changes in the product ... | 2016 | 26616164 |
| genetic variation in toll-interacting protein is associated with leprosy susceptibility and cutaneous expression of interleukin 1 receptor antagonist. | leprosy is a chronic disease characterized by skin and peripheral nerve pathology and immune responses that fail to control mycobacterium leprae. toll-interacting protein (tollip) regulates toll-like receptor (tlr) and interleukin 1 receptor (il-1r) signaling against mycobacteria. we analyzed messenger rna (mrna) expression of candidate immune genes in skin biopsy specimens from 85 individuals with leprosy. tollip mrna was highly and specifically correlated with il-1r antagonist (il-1ra). in a c ... | 2016 | 26610735 |
| regional anaesthesia management in a patient with leprosy: rare case with rare application. | leprosy is a chronic infectious disease that is caused by mycobacterium leprae and affects the skin and nerves. patients with leprosy having related peripheral neuropathy and involvement of other organs may have cardiac, respiratory dysautonomia and autonomic dysfunctions. there are very few studies regarding anaesthetic management of patients suffering from leprosy. moreover, very few studies concerning regional anaesthesia in patients with lepromatous leprosy have been reported. in this study, ... | 2016 | 27366553 |
| s100a12 is part of the antimicrobial network against mycobacterium leprae in human macrophages. | triggering antimicrobial mechanisms in macrophages infected with intracellular pathogens, such as mycobacteria, is critical to host defense against the infection. to uncover the unique and shared antimicrobial networks induced by the innate and adaptive immune systems, gene expression profiles generated by rna sequencing (rnaseq) from human monocyte-derived macrophages (mdms) activated with tlr2/1 ligand (tlr2/1l) or ifn-γ were analyzed. weighed gene correlation network analysis identified modul ... | 2016 | 27355424 |
| mechanisms of defense against intracellular pathogens mediated by human macrophages. | the key question our work has sought to address has been, "what are the necessary and sufficient conditions that engender protection from intracellular pathogens in the human host?" the origins of this work derive from a long-standing interest in the mechanisms of protection against two such paradigmatic intracellular pathogens, mycobacterium tuberculosis and mycobacterium leprae, that have brilliantly adapted to the human host. it was obvious that these pathogens, which cause chronic diseases a ... | 2016 | 27337485 |
| human nod2 recognizes structurally unique muramyl dipeptides from mycobacterium leprae. | the innate immune system recognizes microbial pathogens via pattern recognition receptors. one such receptor, nod2, via recognition of muramyl dipeptide (mdp), triggers a distinct network of innate immune responses, including the production of interleukin-32 (il-32), which leads to the differentiation of monocytes into dendritic cells (dc). nod2 has been implicated in the pathogenesis of human leprosy, yet it is not clear whether mycobacterium leprae, which has a distinct mdp structure, can acti ... | 2016 | 27297389 |
| mycobacterium leprae-induced insulin-like growth factor i attenuates antimicrobial mechanisms, promoting bacterial survival in macrophages. | mycobacterium leprae (ml), the etiologic agent of leprosy, can subvert macrophage antimicrobial activity by mechanisms that remain only partially understood. in the present study, the participation of hormone insulin-like growth factor i (igf-i) in this phenomenum was investigated. macrophages from the dermal lesions of the disseminated multibacillary lepromatous form (ll) of leprosy expressed higher levels of igf-i than those from the self-limited paucibacillary tuberculoid form (bt). higher le ... | 2016 | 27282338 |
| soil-transmitted helminth infections and leprosy: a cross-sectional study of the association between two major neglected tropical diseases in indonesia. | the clinical spectrum of leprosy is dependent on the host immune response against mycobacterium leprae or the newly discovered mycobacterium lepromatosis antigen. helminth infections have been shown to affect the development of several diseases through immune regulation and thus may play a role in the clinical manifestations of leprosy and leprosy reactions. the purpose of this study is to determine the proportion of helminth infections in leprosy and its association with the type of leprosy and ... | 2016 | 27278453 |
| tuberculosis and leprosy infections in the marshallese population of arkansas, usa. | the cross-immunity between tuberculosis and leprosy is unknown. the aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the occurrence of mycobacterium tuberculosis and m. leprae infection in marshallese adult volunteers in springdale, arkansas, u.s.a., a population that experiences high rates of leprosy and tuberculosis. we used immunodiagnostic testing for tuberculosis and leprosy infection and found significant prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection (19.0%), and asymptomatic mycobacterium leprae inf ... | 2016 | 27255065 |
| autochthonous borderline tuberculoid leprosy in a man from florida. | leprosy (hansen's disease) is a chronic contagious granulomatous disease principally affecting the skin and peripheral nervous system, caused by mycobacterium leprae. in this report, we present a case of autochthonous leprosy in a man from florida as the first human case reported from this region. authors believe dermatologists need to be aware of the possibility of autochthonous transmission of leprosy in the eastern-southern united states, and should consider leprosy in any patient with atypic ... | 2016 | 27255063 |
| mutation at codon 442 in the rpob gene of mycobacterium leprae does not confer resistance to rifampicin. | rifampicin is the major drug in the treatment of leprosy. the rifampicin resistance of mycobacterium leprae results from a mutation in the rpob gene, encoding the β subunit of rna polymerase. as m. leprae is a non-cultivable organism observation of its growth using mouse food-pad (mfp) is the only gold standard assay used for confirmation of "in-vivo" drug resistance. | 2016 | 27255062 |
| association of viable mycobacterium leprae with type 1 reaction in leprosy. | the working hypothesis is that, viable mycobacterium leprae (m. leprae) play a crucial role in the precipitation of type 1 reaction (t1r) in leprosy. | 2016 | 27255061 |
| [borderline leprosy as a rare differential diagnosis]. | history and clinical findings | a 42-year-old migrant from brazil presented with persistent sensory disturbances, skin discolorations and local alopecia in the upper limbs. decisive for the presentation in our tropical medicine clinic were new occurrences of severe pain and redness and swelling in the area of the lesions that had already been assessed by a number of medical specialists without a clear diagnosis could be made. investigations and diagnosis | the histological analysis of skin biops ... | 2016 | 27254633 |
| expression profile of rab5, rab7, tryptophan aspartate-containing coat protein, leprae lipoarabinomannan, and phenolic glycolipid-1 on the failure of the phagolysosome process in macrophages of leprosy patients as a viability marker of mycobacterium leprae. | phagolysosome process in macrophage of leprosy patients' is important in the early phase of eliminating mycobacterium leprae invasion. this study was to clarify the involvement of rab5, rab7, and trytophan aspartate-containing coat protein (taco) from host macrophage and leprae lipoarabinomannan (lep-lam) and phenolic glycolipid-1 (pgl-1) from m. leprae cell wall as the reflection of phagolysosome process in relation to 16 subunit ribosomal rna (16s rrna) m. leprae as a marker of viability of m. ... | 2016 | 27242226 |
| mycobacterium leprae specific genomic target in the promoter region of probable 4-alpha-glucanotransferase (ml1545) gene with potential sensitivity for polymerase chain reaction based diagnosis of leprosy. | with the absence of an effective diagnostic tool for leprosy, cases with negative bacteriological index and limited clinical manifestations often pose diagnostic challenges. in this study, we investigated the utility of a novel mycobacterium leprae specific 112-bp dna sequence in the promoter region of probable 4-alpha-glucanotransferase (pseudogene, ml1545) for polymerase chain reaction (pcr) based diagnosis of leprosy in comparison to that of the rlep gene. dna was extracted from slit skin scr ... | 2016 | 27242223 |
| [methods for determining the antimicrobial susceptibility of mycobacteria]. | mycobacteria are a large group of microorganisms, multiple species of which are major causes of morbidity and mortality, such as tuberculosis and leprosy. at present, the emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant strains of mycobacterium tuberculosis complex are one of the most serious health problems worldwide. furthermore, in contrast to m. tuberculosis and mycobacterium leprae, non-tuberculous mycobacteria (ntm) are more frequently isolated and, in many cases, treatment is based on drug sus ... | 2016 | 27236235 |
| leprosy in children and adolescents under 15 years old in an urban centre in brazil. | this original study describes the intra-urban distribution of cases of leprosy in residents under 15 years old in salvador, bahia, brazil; the study also identifies the environment in which mycobacterium leprae is being transmitted. the cases were distributed by operational classification, clinical forms, type of contact and the addresses were geo-referenced by neighborhood. between 2007 and 2011, were reported 145 cases of leprosy in target population living in salvador, corresponding to detect ... | 2016 | 27223655 |
| increasing incidence of leprosy and transmission from armadillos in central florida: a case series. | 2016 | 27222885 | |
| pauci- and multibacillary leprosy: two distinct, genetically neglected diseases. | after sustained exposure to mycobacterium leprae, only a subset of exposed individuals develops clinical leprosy. moreover, leprosy patients show a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations that extend from the paucibacillary (pb) to the multibacillary (mb) form of the disease. this "polarization" of leprosy has long been a major focus of investigation for immunologists because of the different immune response in these two forms. but while leprosy per se has been shown to be under tight human gen ... | 2016 | 27219008 |
| patterns of mycobacterium leprae infection in wild nine-banded armadillos (dasypus novemcinctus) in mississippi, usa. | the nine-banded armadillo ( dasypus novemcinctus ) is the only known nonhuman reservoir of mycobacterium leprae , the causative agent of hansen's disease or leprosy. we conducted a 6-yr study on a wild population of armadillos in western mississippi that was exposed to m. leprae to evaluate the importance of demographic and spatial risk factors on individual antibody status. we found that spatially derived covariates were not predictive of antibody status. furthermore, analyses revealed no evide ... | 2016 | 27195687 |
| leprosy among children under 15 years of age: literature review. | leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by mycobacterium leprae, representing a public health issue in some countries. though more prevalent in adults, the detection of new cases in children under 15 years of age reveals an active circulation of bacillus, continued transmission and lack of disease control by the health system, as well as aiding in the monitoring of the endemic. among patients under 15 years of age, the most affected age group is children between 10 and 14 years of age, al ... | 2016 | 27192519 |
| combination chemoprophylaxis and immunoprophylaxis in reducing the incidence of leprosy. | leprosy is a complex infectious disease caused by mycobacterium leprae that is a leading cause of nontraumatic peripheral neuropathy. current control strategies, with a goal of early diagnosis and treatment in the form of multidrug therapy, have maintained new case reports at ~225,000 per year. diagnostic capabilities are limited and even with revisions to multidrug therapy regimen, treatment can still require up to a year of daily drug intake. although alternate chemotherapies or adjunct immune ... | 2016 | 27175099 |
| leprosy as a model to understand cancer immunosurveillance and t cell anergy. | leprosy is a disease caused by mycobacterium leprae that presents on a spectrum of both clinical manifestations and t cell response. on one end of this spectrum, tuberculoid leprosy is a well-controlled disease, characterized by a cell-mediated immunity and immunosurveillance. on the opposite end of the spectrum, lepromatous leprosy is characterized by m. leprae proliferation and t cell anergy. similar to progressive tumor cells, m. leprae escapes immunosurveillance in more severe forms of lepro ... | 2016 | 27106673 |
| inoculation site leprosy in a tattoo as a paradoxical reaction following tuberculosis treatment. | we present a patient who developed inoculation site leprosy in a tattoo, which was confirmed by mycobacterium leprae dna sequencing of a polymerase chain reaction product from a skin biopsy. his leprosy became manifest as a paradoxical reaction only after 8 weeks of treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis. | 2016 | 27084829 |
| a quantitative approach to analyzing genome reductive evolution using protein-protein interaction networks: a case study of mycobacterium leprae. | the advance in high-throughput sequencing technologies has yielded complete genome sequences of several organisms, including complete bacterial genomes. the growing number of these available sequenced genomes has enabled analyses of their dynamics, as well as the molecular and evolutionary processes which these organisms are under. comparative genomics of different bacterial genomes have highlighted their genome size and gene content in association with lifestyles and adaptation to various envir ... | 2016 | 27066064 |
| clinical pearls: leprosy reactions. | leprosy reactions are acute inflammatory episodes that occur in the setting of mycobacterium leprae infection. precipitants of reactions can be pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic. both type 1 and type 2 reactions typically occur before and during leprosy treatment but may also occur after treatment has been completed. reactions cause morbidity due to nerve damage, and prompt corticosteroid therapy is warranted to minimize nerve damage due to reactions. | 2016 | 27060010 |
| mycobacterium leprae is usually positive to periodic acid-schiff and grocott stains. | 2016 | 26999344 | |
| mycobacterium leprae alters classical activation of human monocytes in vitro. | macrophages play a central role in the pathogenesis of leprosy, caused by mycobacterium leprae. the polarized clinical presentations in leprosy are associated with differential immune activation. in tuberculoid leprosy, macrophages show a classical activation phenotype (m1), while macrophages in lepromatous disease display characteristics of alternative activation (m2). bacille calmette-guérin (bcg) vaccination, which protects against leprosy, can promote sustained changes in monocyte response t ... | 2016 | 26973434 |
| [a strange facial mutilation]. | 2016 | 26969390 | |
| association between str -794 catt5-8 and snp -173 g/c polymorphisms in the mif gene and lepromatous leprosy in mestizo patients of western mexico. | lepromatous leprosy (ll) is the most common presentation of leprosy in mexico. ll patients are unable to activate an effective inflammatory response against mycobacterium leprae probably due to the genetics of the host. macrophage migration inhibitory factor (mif) is important to trigger inflammation processes. two polymorphisms have been reported for human mif: str -794 catt5-8 and snp -173 g/c. 7-8 catt repeats at -794 and the c allele at -173 increase the expression of mif. we aim to determin ... | 2016 | 27426952 |
| the role of primary infection of schwann cells in the aetiology of infective inflammatory neuropathies. | numerous different pathogens are responsible for infective peripheral neuropathies and this is generally the result of the indirect effects of pathogen infection, namely anti pathogen antibodies cross reacting with epitopes on peripheral nerve, auto reactive t cells attacking myelin, circulating immune complexes and complement fixation. primary infection of schwann cells (sc) associated with peripheral nerve inflammation is rare requiring pathogens to cross the blood peripheral nerve barrier (bp ... | 2016 | 27546064 |
| application of mycobacterium leprae-specific cellular and serological tests for the differential diagnosis of leprosy from confounding dermatoses. | mycobacterium leprae-specific serological and cell-mediated-immunity/cmi test were evaluated for the differential diagnosis of multibacillary/mb, and paucibacillary/pb leprosy from other dermatoses. whole-blood assay/wba/ifnγ stimulated with lid-1 antigen and elisa tests for igg to lid-1 and igm to pgl-i were performed. wba/lid-1/ifnγ production was observed in 72% pb, 11% mb leprosy, 38% dermatoses, 40% healthy endemic controls/ec. the receiver operating curve/roc for wba/lid-1 in pb versus oth ... | 2016 | 27506457 |
| renal amyloidosis in leprosy, an infrequent cause of nephrotic syndrome in europe. | leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by mycobacterium leprae the main clinical manifestations involve the skin and the peripheral nervous system. several types of nephropathy have been described in leprosy. one frequent form of renal involvement is amyloidosis, especially in patients with lepromatous leprosy. in these patients, end-stage renal disease is an important contributor to morbidity and mortality. here, we present the case of a patient with nephrotic syndrome caused by seconda ... | 2016 | 27489069 |
| profiling of intracellular metabolites: an approach to understanding the characteristic physiology of mycobacterium leprae. | mycobacterium leprae is the causative agent of leprosy and also known to possess unique features such as inability to proliferate in vitro. among the cellular components of m. leprae, various glycolipids present on the cell envelope are well characterized and some of them are identified to be pathogenic factors responsible for intracellular survival in host cells, while other intracellular metabolites, assumed to be associated with basic physiological feature, remain largely unknown. in the pres ... | 2016 | 27479467 |
| dna sensing via tlr-9 constitutes a major innate immunity pathway activated during erythema nodosum leprosum. | the chronic course of lepromatous leprosy may be interrupted by acute inflammatory episodes known as erythema nodosum leprosum (enl). despite its being a major cause of peripheral nerve damage in leprosy patients, the immunopathogenesis of enl remains ill-defined. recognized by distinct families of germline-encoded pattern recognition receptors, endogenous and pathogen-derived nucleic acids are highly immunostimulatory molecules that play a major role in the host defense against infections, auto ... | 2016 | 27474073 |
| spatial and temporal epidemiology of mycobacterium leprae infection among leprosy patients and household contacts of an endemic region in southeast brazil. | leprosy is a chronic infectious disease that remains a public health problem in low- and middle-income countries. household contacts of leprosy patients (hhcs) have increased risk of developing disease and are important links in the chain of transmission of mycobacterium leprae. based on epidemiological and operational factors, the global elimination strategy depends on the geographic stratification of endemic areas to intensify control activities. the purpose of the study was to integrate epide ... | 2016 | 27469619 |
| diguanylate cyclase activity of the mycobacterium leprae t cell antigen ml1419c. | the second messenger, bis-(3',5')-cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate (cyclic di-gmp), is involved in the control of multiple bacterial phenotypes, including those that impact host-pathogen interactions. bioinformatics analyses predicted that mycobacterium leprae, an obligate intracellular bacterium and the causative agent of leprosy, encodes three active diguanylate cyclases. in contrast, the related pathogen mycobacterium tuberculosis encodes only a single diguanylate cyclase. one of the m. ... | 2016 | 27450520 |
| red squirrels in the british isles are infected with leprosy bacilli. | leprosy, caused by infection with mycobacterium leprae or the recently discovered mycobacterium lepromatosis, was once endemic in humans in the british isles. red squirrels in great britain (sciurus vulgaris) have increasingly been observed with leprosy-like lesions on the head and limbs. using genomics, histopathology, and serology, we found m. lepromatosis in squirrels from england, ireland, and scotland, and m. leprae in squirrels from brownsea island, england. infection was detected in overt ... | 2016 | 27846605 |
| experimental infection of rhodnius prolixus (hemiptera, triatominae) with mycobacterium leprae indicates potential for leprosy transmission. | leprosy is a chronic dermato-neurological disease caused by infection with mycobacterium leprae. in 2013 almost 200,000 new cases of leprosy were detected around the world. since the first symptoms take from years to decades to appear, the total number of asymptomatic patients is impossible to predict. although leprosy is one of the oldest records of human disease, the mechanisms involved with its transmission and epidemiology are still not completely understood. in the present work, we experime ... | 2016 | 27203082 |
| the oral cavity in leprosy: what clinicians need to know. | leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by mycobacterium leprae, a bacillus that has a tropism for skin and peripheral nerves. leprosy treatment is based on a multidrug therapy established by the world health organization in 1982 and, despite its widespread use, brazil ranks second worldwide in numbers of cases. oral involvement in leprosy has been poorly described in the literature, and few studies have shown that although the bacillus is found in mucosa, specific leprosy lesions are rar ... | 2016 | 27606832 |
| prevalence and correlates of leprosy in a high-risk community setting in sri lanka. | leprosy is caused by the mycobacterium leprae bacillus. pockets of high endemicity remain in a number of countries including sri lanka, in spite of the fact that elimination has been achieved at the national level. in 2012, in a village in the puttlam district, dermatologists reported an increase in individuals with leprosy. this village had been established in the 1990s for people displaced from northern sri lanka during a civil war. a comprehensive household survey was conducted by district he ... | 2016 | 27605468 |
| [pure neural leprosy. diagnostic aspects of a clinical case]. | leprosy is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria mycobacterium leprae. it is particularly prone to affect the skin and the nerve trunks and, in fact, both are compromised in most infected patients. it is transmitted by exposure to those with the disease and sometimes by reactivation. one uncommon possibility is pure neural leprosy, which is characterised by neuropathy, but without skin lesions. we report the case of a patient with pure neural leprosy and review the diagnostic aspects. | 2016 | 27600740 |
| a case of fluoroquinolone-resistant leprosy discovered after 9 years of misdiagnosis. | we report a case of misdiagnosed leprosy in a 21-year-old malagasy male, who, improperly treated, developed secondary mycobacterial resistance to fluoroquinolone. the patient contracted the infection 9 years prior to the current consultation, displaying on the right thigh a single papulonodular lesion, which progressively spread to the lower leg, back, and face. initial administration of ciprofloxacin and prednisolone led to temporary and fluctuating improvement. subsequent long-term self-medica ... | 2016 | 27579195 |
| transmission of drug-resistant leprosy in guinea-conakry detected using molecular epidemiological approaches. | molecular drug susceptibility testing was performed on skin biopsies from 24 leprosy patients from guinea-conakry for the first time. we identified primary drug resistance in 4 cases and a dapsone-resistant cluster caused by the same strain. primary transmission of drug-resistant mycobacterium leprae, including a rifampicin-resistant strain, is reported. | 2016 | 27558568 |
| editorial commentary: evidences of aerial route of mycobacterium leprae infection and doubts about transmission and natural protection in leprosy. | 2016 | 27558566 | |
| molecular evidence for the aerial route of infection of mycobacterium leprae and the role of asymptomatic carriers in the persistence of leprosy. | leprosy persists as a public health problem. the chain of transmission and mechanism of infection are not completely understood. in the current study, we investigated the route of infection and of disease onset, from airway exposure, colonization, and bloodstream dissemination. | 2016 | 27558564 |
| leprae reaction resembling rheumatologic disease as presenting feature of leprosy. | leprosy is a chronic granulomatous infection caused by mycobacterium leprae with predominant involvement of skin and nerves. we present a 70-year-old man with leprosy whose initial presentation resembled rheumatologic disease, due to leprae reaction. he presented with an 8-week history of worsening neuropathic pain in the right forearm, associated with necrotic skin lesions on his fingers that had ulcerated. physical examination revealed two tender necrotic ulcers at the tip of the right middle ... | 2016 | 27456320 |
| mutations in the drug resistance-determining region of mycobacterium lepromatosis isolated from leprosy patients in mexico. | mycobacterium lepromatosis, an independent species from mycobacterium leprae, has been found to be a causative agent for diffuse lepromatous leprosy (dll) in mexico, but remains poorly studied. here, the drug resistance-determining regions (drdr) of folp1, rpob and gyra (conferring resistance to dapsone, rifampicin and quinolone, respectively) in m. lepromatosis from leprosy patients in mexico were characterized. no mutations or silent mutations were found at previously characterized major sites ... | 2016 | 27345334 |
| genomic diversity in mycobacterium leprae isolates from leprosy cases in south india. | the objective of this study was to identify the strain diversity of mycobacterium leprae in terms of snp types and subtypes stratified as per genomic single nucleotide polymorphisms, in clinical isolates of leprosy patients from a tertiary care leprosy center in south india. further, the associations of snp types with clinical outcomes in leprosy were also investigated. | 2016 | 27642139 |
| genetic variants of the mavs, mita and mfn2 genes are not associated with leprosy in han chinese from southwest china. | leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by mycobacterium leprae (m. leprae), which has massive genomic decay and dependence on host metabolism. accumulating evidence showed a crucial role of mitochondria in metabolism and innate immunity. we hypothesized that the mitochondrial-related antimicrobial/antiviral immune genes mavs (mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein), mita (mediator of irf3 activation) and mfn2 (mitofusin 2) would confer a risk to leprosy. in this study, we performed a ... | 2016 | 27553710 |
| role of teffector/memory cells, tbx21 gene expression and t-cell homing receptor on type 1 reaction in borderline lepromatous leprosy patients. | in spite of hyporesponsivity to mycobacterium leprae, borderline lepromatous (bl) patients show clinical and immunological instability, and undergo frequent acute inflammatory episodes such as type 1 reaction (t1r), which may cause nerve damages. this work focused on the participation of t cell subsets from blood and skin at t1r onset. we observed a significantly increased ex vivo frequency of both effector and memory cd4+ and cd8+ t cells in t1r group. besides, ex vivo frequency of t cell homin ... | 2016 | 27764137 |
| paleomicrobiology of leprosy. | the use of paleomicrobiological techniques in leprosy has the potential to assist paleopathologists in many important aspects of their studies on the bones of victims, solving at times diagnostic problems. with mycobacterium leprae, because of the unique nature of the organism, these techniques can help solve problems of differential diagnosis. in cases of co-infection with mycobacterium tuberculosis, they can also suggest a cause of death and possibly even trace the migratory patterns of people ... | 2016 | 27726813 |
| leprosy drug resistance surveillance in colombia: the experience of a sentinel country. | an active search for mycobacterium leprae drug resistance was carried out, 243 multibacillary patients from endemic regions of colombia were included from 2004 to 2013 in a surveillance program. this program was a world health organization initiative for drug resistance surveillance in leprosy, where colombia is a sentinel country. m. leprae dna from slit skin smear and/or skin biopsy samples was amplified and sequenced to identify mutations in the drug resistance determining region (drdr) in rp ... | 2016 | 27706165 |
| mycobacteriophages as incubators for intein dissemination and evolution. | inteins are self-splicing protein elements that are mobile at the dna level and are sporadically distributed across microbial genomes. inteins appear to be horizontally transferred, and it has been speculated that phages may play a role in intein distribution. our attention turns to mycobacteriophages, which infect mycobacteria, where both phage and host harbor inteins. using bioinformatics, mycobacteriophage genomes were mined for inteins. this study reveals that these mobile elements are prese ... | 2016 | 27703073 |
| quantitative lateral flow strip assays as user-friendly tools to detect biomarker profiles for leprosy. | leprosy is a debilitating, infectious disease caused by mycobacterium leprae. despite the availability of multidrug therapy, transmission is unremitting. thus, early identification of m. leprae infection is essential to reduce transmission. the immune response to m. leprae is determined by host genetics, resulting in paucibacillary (pb) and multibacillary (mb) leprosy associated with dominant cellular or humoral immunity, respectively. this spectral pathology of leprosy compels detection of immu ... | 2016 | 27682181 |
| dc-159a shows inhibitory activity against dna gyrases of mycobacterium leprae. | fluoroquinolones are a class of antibacterial agents used for leprosy treatment. some new fluoroquinolones have been attracting interest due to their remarkable potency that is reportedly better than that of ofloxacin, the fluoroquinolone currently recommended for treatment of leprosy. for example, dc-159a, a recently developed 8-methoxy fluoroquinolone, has been found to be highly potent against various bacterial species. nonetheless, the efficacy of dc-159a against mycobacterium leprae is yet ... | 2016 | 27681932 |
| identifying leprosy and those at risk of developing leprosy by detection of antibodies against lid-1 and lid-ndo. | leprosy is caused by mycobacterium leprae infection and remains a major public health problem in many areas of the world. challenges to its timely diagnosis result in delay in treatment, which is usually associated with severe disability. although phenolic glycolipid (pgl)-i has been reported as auxiliary diagnostic tool, currently there is no serological assay routinely used in leprosy diagnosis. the aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of two related reagents, lid-1 and lid-ndo, ... | 2016 | 27658042 |
| common variants in the parl and pink1 genes increase the risk to leprosy in han chinese from south china. | leprosy is a chronic infectious and neurological disease caused by mycobacterium leprae, an unculturable pathogen with massive genomic decay and dependence on host metabolism. we hypothesized that mitochondrial genes parl and pink1 would confer risk to leprosy. thirteen tag snps of parl and pink1 were analyzed in 3620 individuals with or without leprosy from china. we also sequenced the entire exons of parl, pink1 and park2 in 80 patients with a family history of leprosy by using the next genera ... | 2016 | 27876828 |
| subversion of schwann cell glucose metabolism by mycobacterium leprae. | 2016 | 27864529 | |
| excavating the surface-associated and secretory proteome of mycobacterium leprae for identifying vaccines and diagnostic markers relevant immunodominant epitopes. | for centuries, mycobacterium leprae, etiological agent of leprosy, has been afflicting mankind regardless of extensive use of live-attenuated vaccines and antibiotics. surface-associated and secretory proteins (sasps) are attractive targets against bacteria. we have integrated biological knowledge with computational approaches and present a proteome-wide identification of sasps. we also performed computational assignment of immunodominant epitopes as coordinates of prospective antigenic candidat ... | 2016 | 27856491 |
| a large-scale genome-wide association and meta-analysis identified four novel susceptibility loci for leprosy. | leprosy, a chronic infectious disease, results from the uncultivable pathogen mycobacterium leprae (m. leprae), and usually progresses to peripheral neuropathy and permanent progressive deformity if not treated. previously published genetic studies have identified 18 gene/loci significantly associated with leprosy at the genome-wide significant level. however as a complex disease, only a small proportion of leprosy risk could be explained by those gene/loci. to further identify more susceptibili ... | 2016 | 27976721 |
| th9 cytokines response and its possible implications in the immunopathogenesis of leprosy. | leprosy is an infectious-contagious disease whose clinical evolution depends on the interaction of the infectious agent with the immune response of the host, leading to a clinical spectrum that ranges from lepromatous leprosy (susceptibility, ll) to tuberculoid leprosy (resistance, tt). the immune response profile will depend on the pattern of cytokine production and on the activity of macrophages during infection. classically, the clinical evolution of leprosy has been associated with th1/th2 c ... | 2016 | 27927694 |
| non-exponential growth of mycobacterium leprae thai-53 strain cultured in vitro. | in this study, attempts were made to culture this bacterium in media supplemented with a variety of biological materials to determine why cultivation of mycobacterium leprae in vitro has not this far been successful. a slight increase in the number of cells in medium supplemented with human blood plasma and an extract of nude mouse tissue as observed after more than 3 months of cultivation at 30 °c. to ascertain whether this increase was real growth, the growth was analyzed by droplet digital pc ... | 2016 | 27925336 |
| can baseline ml flow test results predict leprosy reactions? an investigation in a cohort of patients enrolled in the uniform multidrug therapy clinical trial for leprosy patients in brazil. | the predictive value of the serology to detection of igm against the mycobacterium leprae-derived phenolic glycolipid-i/pgl-i to identify leprosy patients who are at higher risk of developing reactions remains controversial. whether baseline results of the ml flow test can predict leprosy reactions was investigated among a cohort of patients enrolled in the clinical trial for uniform multidrug therapy for leprosy patients in brazil (u-mdt/ct-br). | 2016 | 27919284 |
| evaluation of fluorescent staining for diagnosis of leprosy and its impact on grading of the disease: comparison with conventional staining. | leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by mycobacterium leprae (m. leprae). histopathological examination of skin lesion is the gold standard for diagnosis. we evaluated the possible role of fluorescent microscopy in this direction which is increasingly used for rapid screening. | 2016 | 27891346 |
| evaluation of polymerase chain reaction (pcr) with slit skin smear examination (sss) to confirm clinical diagnosis of leprosy in eastern nepal. | detection of mycobacterium leprae in slit skin smear (sss) is a gold standard technique for the leprosy diagnosis. over recent years, molecular diagnosis by using pcr has been increasingly used as an alternative for its diagnosis due to its higher sensitivity. this study was carried out for comparative evaluation of pcr and sss microscopy in a cohort of new leprosy cases diagnosed in b. p. koirala institute of health sciences, dharan, nepal. | 2016 | 28027305 |
| investigating potential exogenous tumor initiating and promoting factors for cutaneous t-cell lymphomas (ctcl), a rare skin malignancy. | most skin malignancies are caused by external and often preventable environmental agents. multiple reports demonstrated that cutaneous t-cell lymphomas (ctcl) can occur in married couples and cluster in families. furthermore, recent studies document geographic clustering of this malignancy in texas as well as in other areas of the united states. multiple infectious, occupational, and medication causes have been proposed as triggers or promoters of this malignancy including hydrochlorothiazide di ... | 2016 | 27622024 |
| urticaria and bacterial infections. | the association between urticaria and infectious diseases has been discussed for >100 years. however, a causal relationship with underlying or precipitating infection is difficult to establish. the purpose of this work was to perform a systematic analysis of the published cases of urticaria associated with bacterial infections. we give an umbrella breakdown of up-to-date systematic reviews and other important publications on the complex association of urticaria and bacterial infections. we did a ... | 2016 | 24857191 |
| rab32 restriction of intracellular bacterial pathogens. | our immune system is engaged in a continuous battle against invading pathogens, many of which have evolved to survive in intracellular niches of mammalian hosts. a variety of cellular processes are involved in preventing bacterial invasion or in killing bacteria that successfully invade host cells. recently, the rab gtpase rab32 emerged as critical regulator of a host defense pathway that can eliminate bacterial pathogens. salmonella enterica is an intracellular bacterium and a major cause of in ... | 2016 | 27645564 |
| synthesis and biological activity of alkynoic acids derivatives against mycobacteria. | 2-alkynoic acids have bactericidal activity against mycobacterium smegmatis but their activity fall sharply as the length of the carbon chain increased. in this study, derivatives of 2-alkynoic acids were synthesized and tested against fast- and slow-growing mycobacteria. their activity was first evaluated in m. smegmatis against their parental 2-alkynoic acids, as well as isoniazid, a first-line antituberculosis drug. the introduction of additional unsaturation or heteroatoms into the carbon ch ... | 2016 | 26256431 |
| subversion of schwann cell glucose metabolism by mycobacterium leprae. | mycobacterium leprae, the intracellular etiological agent of leprosy, infects schwann promoting irreversible physical disabilities and deformities. these cells are responsible for myelination and maintenance of axonal energy metabolism through export of metabolites, such as lactate and pyruvate. in the present work, we observed that infected schwann cells increase glucose uptake with a concomitant increase in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (g6pdh) activity, the key enzyme of the oxidative pen ... | 2016 | 27555322 |
| a rapid screening assay for identifying mycobacteria targeted nanoparticle antibiotics. | antibiotic resistance is a serious problem. nanotechnology offers enormous potential in medicine, yet there is limited knowledge regarding the toxicity of nanoparticles (np) for mycobacterial species that cause serious human diseases (e.g. tuberculosis (tb) and leprosy). mycobacterial diseases are a major global health problem; tb caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis (mtb) kills up to 2 million people annually and there are over 200 000 leprosy cases each year caused by mycobacterium leprae (m. ... | 2016 | 26618564 |
| trisaccharides of phenolic glycolipids confer advantages to pathogenic mycobacteria through manipulation of host-cell pattern-recognition receptors. | despite mycobacterial pathogens continue to be a threat to public health, the mechanisms that allow them to persist by modulating the host immune response are poorly understood. among the factors suspected to play a role are phenolic glycolipids (pgls), produced notably by the major pathogenic species such as mycobacterium tuberculosis and mycobacterium leprae. here, we report an original strategy combining genetic reprogramming of the pgl pathway in mycobacterium bovis bcg and chemical synthesi ... | 2016 | 27548027 |
| sting-dependent 2'-5' oligoadenylate synthetase-like production is required for intracellular mycobacterium leprae survival. | cytosolic detection of nucleic acids elicits a type i interferon (ifn) response and plays a critical role in host defense against intracellular pathogens. herein, a global gene expression profile of mycobacterium leprae-infected primary human schwann cells identified the genes differentially expressed in the type i ifn pathway. among them, the gene encoding 2'-5' oligoadenylate synthetase-like (oasl) underwent the greatest upregulation and was also shown to be upregulated in m. leprae-infected h ... | 2016 | 27190175 |
| f420h2 is required for phthiocerol dimycocerosate synthesis in mycobacteria. | phthiocerol dimycocerosates (pdim) are a group of cell surface-associated apolar lipids of mycobacterium tuberculosis and closely related mycobacteria, such as mycobacterium bovis and mycobacterium leprae a characteristic methoxy group of these lipids is generated from the methylation of a hydroxyl group of the direct precursors, the phthiotriols. the precursors arise from the reduction of phthiodiolones, the keto intermediates, by a ketoreductase. the putative phthiodiolone ketoreductase (pkr) ... | 2016 | 27185825 |
| unsolved matters in leprosy: a descriptive review and call for further research. | leprosy, a chronic mycobacterial infection caused by mycobacterium leprae, is an infectious disease that has ravaged human societies throughout millennia. this ancestral pathogen causes disfiguring cutaneous lesions, peripheral nerve injury, ostearticular deformity, limb loss and dysfunction, blindness and stigma. despite ongoing efforts in interrupting leprosy transmission, large numbers of new cases are persistently identified in many endemic areas. moreover, at the time of diagnosis, most new ... | 2016 | 27209077 |
| gene-family extension measures and correlations. | the existence of multiple copies of genes is a well-known phenomenon. a gene family is a set of sufficiently similar genes, formed by gene duplication. in earlier works conducted on a limited number of completely sequenced and annotated genomes it was found that size of gene family and size of genome are positively correlated. additionally, it was found that several atypical microbes deviated from the observed general trend. in this study, we reexamined these associations on a larger dataset con ... | 2016 | 27527218 |
| mycobacterium leprae activates toll-like receptor-4 signaling and expression on macrophages depending on previous bacillus calmette-guerin vaccination. | toll-like receptor (tlr)-1 and tlr2 have been shown to be receptors for mycobacterium leprae (m. leprae), yet it is unclear whether m. leprae can signal through alternative tlrs. other mycobacterial species possess ligands for tlr4 and genetic association studies in human populations suggest that people with tlr4 polymorphisms may be protected against leprosy. using human embryonic kidney (hek)-293 cells co-transfected with tlr4, we demonstrate that m. leprae activates tlr4. we used human macrop ... | 2016 | 27458573 |
| current and past strategies for bacterial culture in clinical microbiology. | a pure bacterial culture remains essential for the study of its virulence, its antibiotic susceptibility, and its genome sequence in order to facilitate the understanding and treatment of caused diseases. the first culture conditions empirically varied incubation time, nutrients, atmosphere, and temperature; culture was then gradually abandoned in favor of molecular methods. the rebirth of culture in clinical microbiology was prompted by microbiologists specializing in intracellular bacteria. th ... | 2015 | 25567228 |
| regulatory t-cells at the interface between human host and pathogens in infectious diseases and vaccination. | regulatory t-cells (tregs) act at the interface of host and pathogen interactions in human infectious diseases. tregs are induced by a wide range of pathogens, but distinct effects of tregs have been demonstrated for different pathogens and in different stages of infection. moreover, tregs that are induced by a specific pathogen may non-specifically suppress immunity against other microbes and parasites. thus, treg effects need to be assessed not only in homologous but also in heterologous infec ... | 2015 | 26029205 |
| spatial heterogeneity in projected leprosy trends in india. | leprosy is caused by infection with mycobacterium leprae and is characterized by peripheral nerve damage and skin lesions. the disease is classified into paucibacillary (pb) and multibacillary (mb) leprosy. the 2012 london declaration formulated the following targets for leprosy control: (1) global interruption of transmission or elimination by 2020, and (2) reduction of grade-2 disabilities in newly detected cases to below 1 per million population at a global level by 2020. leprosy is treatable ... | 2015 | 26490137 |
| phylogenetic analysis of vitamin b12-related metabolism in mycobacterium tuberculosis. | comparison of genome sequences from clinical isolates of mycobacterium tuberculosis with phylogenetically-related pathogens mycobacterium marinum, mycobacterium kansasii, and mycobacterium leprae reveals diversity amongst genes associated with vitamin b12-related metabolism. diversity is generated by gene deletion events, differential acquisition of genes by horizontal transfer, and single nucleotide polymorphisms (snps) with predicted impact on protein function and transcriptional regulation. d ... | 2015 | 25988174 |
| parallel detection of ancient pathogens via array-based dna capture. | dna capture coupled with next generation sequencing is highly suitable for the study of ancient pathogens. screening for pathogens can, however, be meticulous when assays are restricted to the enrichment of single organisms, which is common practice. here, we report on an array-based dna capture screening technique for the parallel detection of nearly 100 pathogens that could have potentially left behind molecular signatures in preserved ancient tissues. we demonstrate the sensitivity of our met ... | 2015 | 25487327 |
| successive intramuscular boosting with ifn-alpha protects mycobacterium bovis bcg-vaccinated mice against m. lepraemurium infection. | leprosy caused by mycobacterium leprae primarily affects the skin and peripheral nerves. as a human infectious disease, it is still a significant health and economic burden on developing countries. although multidrug therapy is reducing the number of active cases to approximately 0.5 million, the number of cases per year is not declining. therefore, alternative host-directed strategies should be addressed to improve treatment efficacy and outcome. in this work, using murine leprosy as a model, a ... | 2015 | 26484351 |
| the complete genome sequence of the emerging pathogen mycobacterium haemophilum explains its unique culture requirements. | mycobacterium haemophilum is an emerging pathogen associated with a variety of clinical syndromes, most commonly skin infections in immunocompromised individuals. m. haemophilum exhibits a unique requirement for iron supplementation to support its growth in culture, but the basis for this property and how it may shape pathogenesis is unclear. using a combination of illumina, pacbio, and sanger sequencing, the complete genome sequence of m. haemophilum was determined. guided by this sequence, exp ... | 2015 | 26578674 |