Leprosy microbes lead scientists to immune discovery
With the unusual opportunity that human leprosy infections provide for study of human immune respo... explain why, when threatened by microbes like the leprosy bug, this initial defense sometimes succeeds in limiting the damage, but in other cases yields to a ...Leprosy genome tells story of human migrations, French researchers report in Science
.... The findings indicate that the world's existing leprosy infections are all caused by a single bacterial cl...ve trade. One of the oldest known human diseases, leprosy is still a significant problem in parts of the developing world, especially India. According to the ...International Team Determines Geographic Origin of Leprosy
...migration and contradict a commonly held view that leprosy spread to West Africa directly from East Africa, s...is case M. leprae, and to develop a picture of how leprosy spread from its point of origin. The team looked for SNPs in 171 clinical specimens of M. leprae tak...Scientists discover gene that controls speed of tuberculosis development
... other illnesses, including diseases as diverse as leprosy and rheumatoid arthritis. "We discovered that variants (alleles) of the NRAMP1 gene control the speed at which tuberculosis develops, rather than whether or not it will develop at all," says Dr. Schurr. "This is the first time a gene has been shown t...Once-dreaded leprosy 'replaced' by tuberculosis, say researchers
What caused leprosy ?a widely dreaded disease in medieval Europe ?to f... examinations, the scientists found traces of both leprosy and tuberculosis bacteria in 42 percent of the cases. The findings on the relationship between lepr......by the World Health Organization (WHO). Related to leprosy and tuberculosis, the Mycobacterium ulcerans produces a toxin, lesions, and destroys the fatty tissues under the skin. "The toxin is immunosuppressant; the patients feel no pain and the body mounts no response to infection. It leads to disfigureme...