Department of Infectious Diseases, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Immunol Rev. 2021 May;301(1):175-192. doi: 10.1111/imr.12966. Epub 2021 Mar 11.
Mycobacterium leprae, the causative agent of leprosy, is still actively transmitted in endemic areas reflected by the fairly stable number of new cases detected each year. Recognizing the signs and symptoms of leprosy is challenging, especially at an early stage. Improved diagnostic tools, based on sensitive and specific biomarkers, that facilitate diagnosis of leprosy are therefore urgently needed. In this review, we address the challenges that leprosy biomarker research is facing by reviewing cell types reported to be involved in host immunity to M leprae. These cell types can be associated with different possible fates of M leprae infection being either protective immunity, or pathogenic immune responses inducing nerve damage. Unraveling these responses will facilitate the search for biomarkers. Implications for further studies to disentangle the complex interplay between host responses that lead to leprosy disease are discussed, providing leads for the identification of new biomarkers to improve leprosy diagnostics.
麻风分枝杆菌是麻风病的病原体，在流行地区仍在持续传播，每年新发现的病例数量相当稳定。麻风病的体征和症状难以识别，尤其是在早期阶段。因此，迫切需要基于敏感和特异性生物标志物的改进诊断工具来辅助麻风病的诊断。在这篇综述中，我们通过回顾参与宿主对麻风分枝杆菌免疫的报道细胞类型，讨论了麻风病生物标志物研究面临的挑战。这些细胞类型可以与麻风分枝杆菌感染的不同可能结局相关，即保护性免疫或导致神经损伤的致病性免疫反应。阐明这些反应将有助于寻找生物标志物。讨论了进一步研究以阐明导致麻风病的宿主反应之间复杂相互作用的意义，为识别新的生物标志物以改善麻风病诊断提供了线索。
