Hamilton Heather K, Levis William R, Martiniuk Frank, Cabrera Aloys, Wolf John
Department of Dermatology and Baylor Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
Int J Dermatol. 2008 Jun;47(6):545-50. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-4632.2008.03722.x.
The armadillo was the first animal model of leprosy. Its role in the transmission of leprosy remains controversial. The sooty mangabey model of leprosy led to the discovery that rhesus monkeys were more susceptible to leprosy when coinfected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), but that leprosy may play a protective role against acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) mortality. Recently, molecular methods have been developed for leprosy and may help resolve the role of zoonoses in leprosy.
The recent identification of a case of leprosy in a native-born American on the east coast of the USA and the identification of leprosy as an immunologic reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive cases raise the question of what role zoonoses may play in leprosy.
Leprosy in armadillos and sooty mangabeys has been manipulated by human experimentation. In the case of the armadillo, further study, including molecular techniques, is required to elucidate the role of the armadillo as a zoonosis in human leprosy. Experimentation with the sooty mangabey led to the discovery of an interaction between SIV and leprosy in rhesus monkeys, and prompted the continued investigation of the relationship between HIV and leprosy.
犰狳是首个麻风病动物模型。其在麻风病传播中的作用仍存在争议。麻风病的黑猩猩模型促使人们发现，恒河猴在感染猴免疫缺陷病毒（SIV）时更容易感染麻风病，但麻风病可能对获得性免疫缺陷综合征（AIDS）死亡率起到保护作用。最近，针对麻风病开发了分子方法，这可能有助于解决人畜共患病在麻风病中的作用问题。
最近在美国东海岸一名本土出生的美国人身上确诊了一例麻风病病例，并且在人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）阳性病例中将麻风病鉴定为免疫重建炎症综合征（IRIS），这就提出了人畜共患病在麻风病中可能起什么作用的问题。
犰狳和黑猩猩身上的麻风病已通过人体实验进行操控。就犰狳而言，需要进一步研究，包括采用分子技术，以阐明犰狳作为人畜共患病在人类麻风病中的作用。对黑猩猩进行的实验促使人们发现了SIV与恒河猴麻风病之间的相互作用，并促使人们继续研究HIV与麻风病之间的关系。
