This study aims to determine, in Colombian population, whether differential transcriptomic expression of Hes-1 gene (skin) and RISK4LEP gene signature (blood) areas present in newly diagnosed leprosy patients (mainly PB) as compared to healthy controls without known contact with leprosy patients.
Evaluation of five transcriptomic biomarkers for leprosy in a Colombian population.
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Project summary
Leprosy is an ancient infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Furthermore, these mycobacteria are responsible for 250.000 new cases of this disease worldwide, and in countries such as Colombia are reported around 400 cases each year. However, leprosy continues being endemic in more than 89 municipalities of this country; the research group considers that the detection of leprosy cases in Colombia could be the tip of the iceberg of the possible cases of leprosy. Given that, more than 70% of leprosy diagnoses are multibacillary with some degree of disability. These findings show the failures of the leprosy control programs to be early detection of this disease. In addition, the research group's previous studies have shown that a group of genes such as RISK4LEP and Hes-1 could be useful to promote the detection of this disease mainly in household contacts of leprosy patients and in skin symptomatic patients. Early detection of leprosy is key to reducing the disability, improving the quality of life of leprosy patients, and cutting the transmission chain of these mycobacteria. For this reason, the objective of this research is to determinate if there are changes of Hes-1 and RISK4LEP in leprosy patients and their household contacts in Colombian population.
In this study, skin scrapping and blood samples will be collected from 120 leprosy patients newly diagnosed or under treatment. Besides, in 1000 household contacts. Furthermore, in cases of skin lesions in household contacts, scrapping of skin for Hes-1 will be taken. Finally, the expected outcome for this study is to evaluate the expression of these group of genes that in a medium-term could be used to the leprosy detection.