Correlation between Central Memory T Cell Expression and Proinflammatory Cytokine Production with Clinical Presentation of Multibacillary Leprosy Relapse |
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| Authors: | Danuza Esquenazi Iris Maria Peixoto Alvim Roberta Olmo Pinheiro Eliane Barbosa de Oliveira Lilian de Oliveira Moreira Euzenir Nunes Sarno Jose Augusto da Costa Nery |
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| Institution: | 1Leprosy Laboratory, Oswaldo Cruz Institute – FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;2Laboratory of Cellular Microbiology, Oswaldo Cruz Institute – FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;3Department of Pathology and Laboratories, School of Medical Sciences, State University of Rio de Janeiro - UERJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;The University of Melbourne, AUSTRALIA |
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| Abstract: | BackgroundDespite the efficacy of multidrug therapy, surviving Mycobacterium leprae causes relapse in some leprosy patients, and these patients present signs and symptoms of disease after healing. This study focused on the cellular immune response in relapsed multibacillary patients but also included non-relapsed multibacillary cured individuals, newly diagnosed and untreated multibacillary patients, paucibacillary patients just before the beginning of treatment, and voluntary healthy individuals for comparative analysis.Conclusions/SignificanceInhibition of CD86 expression may function to reduce effector T cell responses against the M. leprae antigen. Furthermore, the predominance of central memory T cells in association with the high TNF/IL-10 ratio and no observed IFN-γ production may be related to the pathogenesis of relapse in multibacillary leprosy. Therefore, our findings may be a direct result of the clinical presentation, including a number of skin lesions and bacterial load, of relapsed patients. To our knowledge, this is the first study correlating immune response parameters with the clinical presentation of relapsed multibacillary patients. |
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