• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.287-293
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• 2001

A fast and easy PCR-SSCP method was developed and assessed for the early detection of rifampin-resistant Mycobacterium leprae in skin biopsy samples from Korean leprosy patients. The 190 bp of the rpoB gene, in which mutation is known to cause resistance to rifampin, was amplified by PCR and then analyzed by SSCP and DNA sequencing, All PCR products showing mobility shift on PCR-SSCP contained mutations, demonstrating that this method can be used for an early diagnositic method to detect a putative rifampin-resistant M. leprae strain. DNA sequence analysis revealed that 19 of 34 patient samples contained M. leprae strains with missense mutations in the rpoB gene: five were the same mutations previously reported to cause rifampin resistance and eight were the new type of mutatios that likely cause rifampin resistance. These newly identified dmutations, whose all five cytosine bases of four amino acids were substitued with thymine, were found at different sites from those reported in Mycobacterium tuberculosis or M. leprae. Therefore, they may provide additional clues to understand the molecular biological basis on the rifampin resistance of M. leprae.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.127-131
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• 2010

Mycobacterium leprae detection is difficult even with molecular biological techniques due to the low sensitivity of current methodologies. In this report, real-time PCR targeting the M. leprae-specific repetitive element (RLEP) sequence was developed as a new diagnostic tool and evaluated using clinical specimens. For this, M. leprae DNAs were extracted from skin biopsy specimens from 80 patients and analyzed by real-time PCR using TaqMan probe. Then, the detection efficiency of the real-time PCR was compared with that of standard PCR. In brief, the rate of positive detection by the standard PCR and real-time PCR was 32.50% and 66.25%, respectively. The results seemed to clearly show that the TaqMan real-time PCR developed in this study may be a useful tool for sensitive detection of M. leprae from clinical specimens.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 2007

The aim of this work was to validate a rapid and an accurate method for detecting Mycobacterium leprae in clinical specimens using nested PCR targeting M. leprae-specific repetitive element (RLEP) sequence. The primers were derived from the RLEP sequence which yield a 272 bp outer product and a 230 bp inner product. The specificity and the sensitivity of the nested PCR were compared with those of single PCR for detecting M. leprae using DNAs isolated from reference strain and various species of Mycobacterium. The results showed that the sensitivity of the nested PCR was about 100 to 1,000 times higher than that of the single PCR and also showed that both the single and the nested PCR were highly specific to M. leprae. Subsequently, the usefulness of the single and nested PCR was evaluated with clinical samples isolated from leprosy patients. The number of positive detections by the single and the nested PCR with a total of 20 specimens from leprosy patients were 9 (45%) and 20 (100%), respectively. The results clearly showed that nested PCR has highest sensitivity in detecting M. leprae from clinical specimens. Therefore, nested primers targeting RLEP sequence developed in this study seems to be useful to detect the presence of M. leprae.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.319-324
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• 2007

One-tube nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was evaluated for its efficacy in detecting Mycobacterium leprae in biopsy samples from leprosy patients. Primers were derived from the M leprae-specific element (RLEP) sequences which yield a 230 bp fragment. The specificity and the sensitivity of the one-tube nested PCR were compared with those of single PCR for detecting M leprae. The results showed that the one-tube nested PCR was about 100 times more sensitive than that of the single indicating the one-tube nested primer sets developed in this study can be an effective screening tool for the detection of M leprae in clinical diagnostic laboratories.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.424-427
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• 2011

The nucleotide-oligomerization domain (NOD) proteins are members of the NOD-like receptor (NLR) family, which are intracellular and cytoplasmic receptors. We analyzed the role of NODs for cytokine production by macrophages infected with intracellular pathogen M. leprae, the causative agent of leprosy. Production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-$1{\beta}$ and TNF-${\alpha}$ was inhibited in the presence of cytochalasin D, an agent blocking phagocytosis, suggesting that intracellular signaling was, partially, required for macrophage activation to M. leprae infection. Next, we investigated the role of NOD1 and NOD2 proteins on NF-${\kappa}B$ activation and cytokine expression. Treatment with M. leprae significantly increased NF-${\kappa}B$ activation and expression of TNF-${\alpha}$ and IL-$1{\beta}$ in NOD1- and NOD2-transfected cells. Interestingly, their activation and expression were inhibited by cytochalasin D, suggesting that stimulation of NOD proteins may be associated with the enhancement of cytokine production in host to M. leprae.

• The Korean Nurse
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• v.4 no.4 s.18
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• pp.37-59
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• 1965

Since the demonstration of Mycoba Abstract terium lepare murium and its recognition as the causative agent of rat leprosy, this intracellular parasite has been an object of unusual interest in connection with the problem of human leprosy. Like the human l

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.236-240
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• 1996

Rifampin is the most powerful drug for treating leprosy and tuberculosis today. It inhibits initiation and elongation of RNA transcription by binding to $\beta$-subunit of RNA polymerase, leading to kill mycobacteria. We isolated one variant strain of Mycobacterium leprae from 24 Korean leprosy patients who are less susceptible to rifampin or have suffered from relapse by polymerase chain reaction and single strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) of the rpoB gene. Direct sequencing of the rpoB region of M. leprae variant revealed missense mutations which altered the amino acids sequenceof RpoB to Ser-464, Arg-465, Arg-467 and Ala-468. This is the first finding on rpoB gene mutation of M. leprae from Korean patients ; moreover the mutant type was found to be different from the previously reported cases in other countries.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.685-689
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• 2000

Due to the uncultivable nature of Mycobacterium leprae in vitro, the fast, easy, and accurate measurement of the antimicrobial drug susceptibility of this microbe has been difficult. Conventional methods for such testing are subjective, cumbersome, and expensive in some cases. Here, the utility of a reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR)-based assay for testing was examined and compared with a Buddmeyer-type radiorespirometric assay. The susceptibility of M. leprae to rifampin was determined by probing the presence of M.leprae-specific 18 kDa gene mRNA in M. leprae-infected IC-21 macrophage cells after drug treatment. The results showed that, as the refampin concentration was increased, the 360-bp cDNA products generated by the RT-PCR-based assay decreased in a dose-dependent manner as in the drug susceptibility observed in the Buddmeyer-type assay. The drug susceptibility testing of M. leprae by the RT-PCR based assay was found to be not only faster but also nearly $10^4$-fold more sensitive than the Buddmeyer-type assay. Moreover, it was also found that, unlike the RT-PCR based assay, the same testing by a DNA-PCR resulted in no differences in the 360-bp signal, regardless of the rifampin concentrations used. Accordingly, these results demonstrated that the drug susceptibility of M. leprae can be determined effectively by an RT-PCR-based assay, thereby providing a new, fast, and sensitive testing method.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.695-701
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• 2015

Previous reports revealed that DMfree (green tea extract) inhibited expression of the IL-6 gene in Mycobacterium lepraeinfected MSCs (mesenchymal stem cells). This study aimed to measure IL-6, $IL-1{\beta}$, $TNF-{\alpha}$ and PGE2 production in M. leprae-infected MSCs using ELISA. To confirm the effect of DMfree on IL-6 and signal transduction, a western blotting test was performed. DMfree inhibited the expression of IL-6 in the MSCs and the heterodimer of STAT3, which also affects the expression of multiple genes. Though DMfree pre-treatment of control MSCs produced a baseline level of IL-6, it significantly inhibited the production of IL-6 in M. leprae-infected MSCs. There was no significant difference in IL-6 production between 1 and 7 day treatment groups. M. leprae-infected MSCs produced more $IL-1{\beta}$, $TNF-{\alpha}$ and PGE2, but DMfree could not inhibit their production at a physiological concentration. This is different from other reports that used higher concentration of EGCG treatment, resulting in significant inhibition of the cytokines. The inhibition appears to be related to the concentration of EGCG. These results indicate that DMfree can alleviate inflammation involving IL-6.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.147-153
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• 1986

Viable potential of Mycobacterium smegmatis, a slow grower in vitro cultivation and of M. leprae, an obligate intracellular parasitic bacterium, which can not be cultured yet in vitro was assessed by fluorospectrophotometry. Bacterial cells in different numbers and under various physiological status were incubater with fluorescein diacetate(FDA). After an incubation of the bacterial preparations with FDA at specified conditions, amount of fluorescein inside bacteria was measured by a fluorospectrophotometer at 470nm and 510nm of excitation and emission wavelengths, respectively. Fluorounit given by such bacteria showed a correlation with assessment of viability of the same preparations made by other methods, such as optical density and colony forming units of M. smegmatis and intracellular ATP content of M. leprae. The possible use of fluorospectrophotometry in assessing viability or physiological potential of bacteria, particularly intracellular parasites and fastidious organisms to culture in vitro is discussed in relation to other methods.