Superoxide dismutase has been identified and peroxidatic activity demonstrated in Mycobacterium leprae. The superoxide dismutase, shown indirectly to be a manganese-containing enzyme, was present at low activity in the cell-free extract. Peroxidatic activity was detected in a haemoprotein on polyacrylamide gels, but quantitative assay was not possible. Catalase, although present in a cell-free ...

There are at least two approaches to antileprosy vaccines : One is the use of Mycobacterium leprae derived from M. leprae-infected armadillos (1) and the other is the use of mycobacteria other than M. leprae, which share the antigenic determinants with M. leprae such as M. nonchromogenicum (2), M. vaccae (2), M. simiae (3), M. tuberculosis H37Ra (3), and M, bovis BCG (3). Shepard et al. (3) rep...

Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae. This bacillus has a high predilection for skin and peripheral nerves. The scalp's anatomical properties do not favor the development of such mycobacterium. We report a case of leprosy with scalp involvement, a rare occurrence in our literature.

Bovine nodular thelitis is a granulomatous dermatitis associated with infection with acid-fast bacteria. To identify the mycobacterium responsible for this infection, we conducted phylogenetic investigations based on partial sequencing of 6 genes. These bacteria were identified as an undescribed Mycobacterium species that was phylogenetically related to M. leprae and M. lepromatosis.

In this report we demonstrate the utility of an monoclonal antibody inhibition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay based on the Mycobacterium leprae 35-kDa protein, purified from the rapidly growing host Mycobacterium smegmatis, for the serodiagnosis of multibacillary leprosy. The assay proved highly specific (97.5%) and sensitive (90%) and compared favorably with two other established methods ro...

During DNA sequence analysis of cosmid L373 from the Mycobacterium leprae genome, an open reading frame of 1.4 kb encoding a protein with some homology to the immunodominant 34-kDa protein of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis, but lacking significant serological activity, was detected. The DNA sequence predicted a signal peptide with a modified lipoprotein consensus sequence, but the protein prove...

Although there is no genetic diversity in isolates of Mycobacterium leprae, the variance of tandem repeats in the rpoT gene was recently demonstrated. We have typed clinical isolates of M. leprae in Korea using difference of the tandem repeats in the rpoT gene. Among 69 patients, 65 Korean isolates (94.2%) demonstrated four copies of the 6 bp tandem repeat (GACATC) in the rpoT gene, and inciden...

Nitazoxanide (NTZ) is an anti-parasitic drug that also has activity against bacteria, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Our data using both radiorespirometry and live-dead staining in vitro demonstrate that NTZ similarly has bactericidal against M. leprae. Further, gavage of M. leprae-infected mice with NTZ at 25mg/kg provided anti-mycobacterial activity equivalent to rifampicin (RIF) at 10...