Leprosy is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae leading to irreversible disabilities along with social exclusion. Leprosy is a spectral disease for which the clinical outcome after... Show moreLeprosy is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae leading to irreversible disabilities along with social exclusion. Leprosy is a spectral disease for which the clinical outcome after M. leprae infection is determined by host factors. The spectrum spans from anti-inflammatory T helper-2 (Th2) immunity concomitant with large numbers of bacteria as well as antibodies against M. leprae antigens in multibacil-lary (MB) leprosy, to paucibacillary (PB) leprosy characterised by strong pro-inflammatory, Th1 as well as Th17 immunity. Despite decades of availability of adequate antibiotic treatment, transmission of M. leprae is unabated. Since individuals with close and frequent contact with untreated leprosy patients are particularly at risk to develop the disease themselves, prophylactic strategies currently focus on household contacts of newly diagnosed patients. It has been shown that BCG (re)vaccination can reduce the risk of leprosy. However, BCG immunopro-phylaxis in contacts of leprosy patients has also been reported to induce PB leprosy, indicating that BCG (re)vaccination may tip the balance between protective immunity and overactivation immunity causing skin/nerve tissue damage. In order to identify who is at risk of developing PB leprosy after BCG vaccination, amongst individuals who are chronically exposed to M. leprae, we analyzed innate and adaptive immune markers in whole blood of household contacts of newly diagnosed leprosy patients in Bangladesh, some of which received BCG vaccination. As controls, individuals from the same area without known contact with leprosy patients were similarly assessed. Our data show the added effect of BCG vaccination on immune markers on top of the effect already induced by M. leprae exposure. Moreover, we identified BCG-induced markers that differentiate between protective and disease prone immunity in those contacts. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Show less
Tio-Coma, M.; Kielbasa, S.M.; Eeden, S.J.F. van den; Mei, H.L.; Roy, J.C.; Wallinga, J.; ... ; Geluk, A. 2021
Background: Leprosy, a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, is often late-or misdiag-nosed leading to irreversible disabilities. Blood transcriptomic biomarkers that... Show moreBackground: Leprosy, a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, is often late-or misdiag-nosed leading to irreversible disabilities. Blood transcriptomic biomarkers that prospectively predict those who progress to leprosy (progressors) would allow early diagnosis, better treatment outcomes and facilitate interventions aimed at stopping bacterial transmission. To identify potential risk signatures of leprosy, we collected whole blood of household contacts (HC, n=5,352) of leprosy patients, including individuals who were diagnosed with leprosy 4-61 months after sample collection.Methods: We investigated differential gene expression (DGE) by RNA-Seq between progressors before pres-ence of symptoms (n=40) and HC (n=40), as well as longitudinal DGE within each progressor. A prospective leprosy signature was identified using a machine learning approach (Random Forest) and validated using reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). Findings: Although no significant intra-individual longitudinal variation within leprosy progressors was iden-tified, 1,613 genes were differentially expressed in progressors before diagnosis compared to HC. We identi-fied a 13-gene prospective risk signature with an Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 95.2%. Validation of this RNA-Seq signature in an additional set of progressors (n=43) and HC (n=43) by RT-qPCR, resulted ina final 4 -gene signature, designated RISK4LEP (MT-ND2, REX1BD, TPGS1, UBC) (AUC=86.4%).Interpretation: This study identifies for the first time a prospective transcriptional risk signature in blood pre-dicting development of leprosy 4 to 61 months before clinical diagnosis. Assessment of this signature in con-tacts of leprosy patients can function as an adjunct diagnostic tool to target implementation of interventions to restrain leprosy development. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. Show less
Hooij, A. van; Fat, E.M.T.K.; Jong, D. de; Khatun, M.; Soren, S.; Chowdhury, A.; ... ; Corstjens, P.L.A.M. 2021
To end the decade-long, obstinately stagnant number of new leprosy cases, there is an urgent need for field-applicable diagnostic tools that detect infection with Mycobacterium leprae, leprosy's... Show moreTo end the decade-long, obstinately stagnant number of new leprosy cases, there is an urgent need for field-applicable diagnostic tools that detect infection with Mycobacterium leprae, leprosy's etiologic agent. Since immunity against M. leprae is characterized by humoral and cellular markers, we developed a lateral flow test measuring multiple host proteins based on six previously identified biomarkers for various leprosy phenotypes. This multi-biomarker test (MBT) demonstrated feasibility of quantitative detection of six host serum proteins simultaneously, jointly allowing discrimination of patients with multibacillary and paucibacillary leprosy from control individuals in high and low leprosy endemic areas. Pilot testing of fingerstick blood showed similar MBT performance in point-of-care (POC) settings as observed for plasma and serum. Thus, this newly developed prototype MBT measures six biomarkers covering immunity against M. leprae across the leprosy spectrum. The MBT thereby provides the basis for immunodiagnostic POC tests for leprosy with potential for other (infectious) diseases as well. Show less
