Castells A, Terencio J, Ramirez A, Sundal E, Bolla K
Surv Immunol Res. 1985;4 Suppl 1:63-9. doi: 10.1007/BF02919058.
Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae; it is chiefly involving the skin and peripheral nerves. In lepromatous leprosy there are widespread loose infiltrates with M. leprae multiplying extensively in the skin macrophages and Schwann cells of peripheral nerves. Such patients reveal a decrease of circulating T helper cells, which is still more pronounced in the cutaneous lesions. Due to the ever increasing bacterial resistance to classical dapsone and combined chemotherapy as well, an immunomodulatory approach seemed reasonable: Eight patients with long-lasting (5-40 years) disease who had become resistant to combined chemotherapy were treated with thymopentin, 50 mg s.c., 3 times weekly for 5 weeks and thereafter combined with dapsone and clofazimine for 5 months. During the trial a statistically significant increase in E-rosette-forming cells (p less than 0.05) was observed, along with a steady improvement of the bacterial status of the nasal mucus. Although the skin lesions did not disappear within the observation period of the study, it is important to realize that long-term improvement of such lesions is always initiated by clearance of bacilli from the nasal mucus, hence, thymopentin treatment appears to be a promising approach to chemotherapy-resistant lepromatous lepra.
麻风病是由麻风分枝杆菌引起的一种慢性传染病，主要累及皮肤和周围神经。在瘤型麻风病中，有广泛的疏松浸润，麻风分枝杆菌在外周神经的皮肤巨噬细胞和施万细胞中大量繁殖。这类患者循环T辅助细胞减少，在皮肤病变中更为明显。由于细菌对传统氨苯砜以及联合化疗的耐药性不断增加，一种免疫调节方法似乎是合理的：8例对联合化疗耐药的病程长达5至40年的患者，接受了胸腺五肽治疗，皮下注射50毫克，每周3次，共5周，此后联合氨苯砜和氯法齐明治疗5个月。在试验期间，观察到E玫瑰花结形成细胞有统计学意义的增加（p小于0.05），同时鼻黏液的细菌状况稳步改善。尽管在研究的观察期内皮肤病变并未消失，但重要的是要认识到，此类病变的长期改善总是始于鼻黏液中杆菌的清除，因此，胸腺五肽治疗似乎是一种有前途的治疗耐化疗瘤型麻风病的方法。
