Armadillo as a model for studying chemotherapy of leprosy: preliminary studies.

In order to determine the suitability of the armadillos as a model of human leprosy for chemotherapeutic studies, especially in evaluating newer anti-leprosy drugs, uninfected Armadillos were used to study the metabolic disposition of DDS. Serum DDS levels ranged from 500 ng/ml at 3 hours to 13 ng/ml at 96 hours after intravenous administration of DDS (1 mg/kg). In an ad libitum feeding trial of DDS it was found that the level of serum DDS varied according to the dose of DDS, and even at a dose of 0.0001%, the animals maintained MIC of DDS against M. leprae. Finally, it was demonstrated that armadillos acetylate DDS to MADDS and 7-9% of DDS is acetylated by armadillos.