Plasma levels of chemokines during leprosy specific treatment

Vanessa Amaral Mendonça, Rosane Dias Costa, Sandra Lyon, Rachel Adriana Penido, Valdinéria Oliveira Borges, Thales Lage Bretas, Carlos Mauricio Antunes, Mauro Martins Teixeira, Antonio Lúcio Teixeira

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Leprosy, whose etiologic agent is Mycobacterium leprae, is an illness of ample clinical and immunopathological spectrum. Although chemokines seem to be involved in the immunopathogenesis of leprosis, few studies have been carried out to unveil the potential of chemokines as biological markers of the disease. The purpose of this study was to investigate the value of measuring CCL2, CCL3, CCL11 and CCL24 in plasma of patients with leprosy (LE) at different stages of multi-drug therapy (MDT). Chemokines were measured by ELISA in plasma of 30 non-infected individuals (NI) and 33 LE patients before and at different stages of treatment. The plasma concentration of CCL11 (p < 0.01) and CCL24 (p < 0.05) was increased in LE patients before treatment when compared to NI individuals. The plasma concentration of CCL24 decreased after MDT (p < 0.05). No differences were observed in the concentration of CCL2 and CCL3 in plasma of NI and LE individuals. The elevated levels of CCL11 and CCL24 in plasma of patients with LE suggest that these chemokines may play a role in disease pathogenesis. Moreover, the decrease of CCL24 after treatment suggests that this chemokine might be useful as a biomarker of response to MDT in patients with leprosy.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)151-154
Number of pages4
JournalActa Tropica
Volume113
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2010
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • CCL11/eotaxin-1
  • CCL24/eotaxin-2
  • Chemokines
  • Leprosy
  • Treatment

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Parasitology
  • veterinary (miscalleneous)
  • Insect Science
  • Infectious Diseases

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