Towards an immunodiagnostic test for leprosy

• Published in: Microbes and infection 2006-07, Vol.8 (8), p.2270-2276
• Main Authors: Aráoz, Romulo, Honoré, Nadine, Banu, Sayera, Demangel, Caroline, Cissoko, Yakouba, Arama, Charles, Mafij Uddin, Mohammad Khaja, Abdul Hadi, S.K., Monot, Marc, Cho, Sang-Nae, Ji, Baohong, Brennan, Patrick J., Sow, Samba, Cole, Stewart T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Analytical, structural and metabolic biochemistry; Animals; Antibodies, Bacterial; Antibodies, Bacterial - biosynthesis; Antigens, Bacterial; Antigens, Bacterial - immunology; Bacterial diseases; Biochemistry, Molecular Biology; Biological and medical sciences; Cells, Cultured; Comparative genomics; Comparative proteomics; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human bacterial diseases; Humans; IFN-γ; Immunologic Tests; Immunologic Tests - methods; Infectious diseases; Interferon-gamma; Interferon-gamma - biosynthesis; Leprosy; Leprosy - diagnosis; Leprosy - immunology; Leprosy immunodiagnosis; Leukocytes, Mononuclear; Leukocytes, Mononuclear - immunology; Life Sciences; Medical sciences; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Microbiology; Miscellaneous; Molecular biology; Molecular Sequence Data; Mycobacterium leprae; Mycobacterium leprae - immunology; Mycobacterium leprae - isolation & purification; Peptides; Peptides - immunology; Phenolic glycolipid-1; Proteins; T-Lymphocytes; T-Lymphocytes - immunology; Tropical bacterial diseases
• ISSN: 1286-4579; 1769-714X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.micinf.2006.04.002

In addition to multidrug therapy, elimination of leprosy requires improved diagnostic methods. Using a comparative genomics approach, 17 potential protein antigens (MLP) that are restricted to Mycobacterium leprae, or of limited distribution, were produced and tested for antigen-specific immune responses on leprosy patients, healthy contacts of leprosy patients, and tuberculosis patients in Mali and Bangladesh, as well as on non-endemic controls. T-cell antigenicity of MLP was confirmed by IFN-γ production in whole-blood assays with the highest responses observed in paucibacillary leprosy patients and healthy contacts. Four MLP behaved well in both countries and induced significantly different responses between the study groups. Peptides carrying T cell epitopes from one of the antigens gave promising results in restimulation assays in mice and immune responses were not influenced by prior exposure to BCG or environmental mycobacteria. This study provides the immunological framework for the development of a specific, peptide-based immunodiagnostic test for leprosy.