@article{26426,
  author = {Wang H and Liu W and Jin Y and Yu M and Jiang H and Tamura T and Maeda Y and Makino M},
  title = {Detection of antibodies to both M. leprae PGL-I and MMP-II to recognize leprosy patients at an early stage of disease progression.},
  abstract = {<p>Antibodies to phenolic glycolipid (PGL)-I and major membrane protein (MMP)-II were evaluated for serodiagnosis of leprosy in Southwest China, and the role in predicting the occurrence of the disease in household contacts (HHCs) of leprosy was examined. Using PGL-I (natural disaccharide-octyl-bovine serum albumin) antigen-based diagnosis (IgM antibodies), we could detect 94.9% of multibacillary (MB) leprosy and 38.9% paucibacillary (PB) leprosy patients, whereas using MMP-II (IgG antibody), 88.1% of MB and 61.1% of PB patients were positive. By combining the 2 tests and considering either test positive as positive, 100% of MB patients and 72.2% of PB patients were found to test positive. Of the HHCs of leprosy, 28.3% and 30% had positive levels of PGL-I and MMP-II Abs, respectively. Seven out of 21 HHCs, who had high Ab titer to either antigen, developed leprosy during the follow-up period of 3years. These data suggest that the measurement of both anti-PGL-I as well as anti-MMP-II antibodies could facilitate early detection of leprosy.</p>
},
  year = {2015},
  journal = {Diagnostic microbiology and infectious disease},
  issn = {1879-0070},
  doi = {10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2015.07.012},
  language = {eng},
}