The level of LL37 Protein and RNA Gene Expression Among leprosy Patients and Their Contacts Attending All Africa Leprosy, Tuberculosis, Rehabilitation and Training (ALERT) Hospital, Ethiopia
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Date
2019-01
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: The antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin, also calledLL37, has broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi and viruses.LL37 is the only human cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide encoded by the gene CAMP. It is referred to as LL37, since it has 37 amino acid sequences starting with two leucines. There are few reports that showed its Level, pro and anti-inflammatory immunomodulatory activity of LL37 in mycobacterial infections;
tuberculosis and leprosy that indicates the need for further investigation of the role of LL37.
Objective: To investigate the level of LL37 in different forms of leprosy.
Methods: Across sectional study was conducted from January 2017 to September 2018 at ALERT hospital. A total of 74 HIV negative individuals consisting of 26 leprosy patients (11tuberculoid leprosy/borderline tuberculoid (TT/BT), 15 borderline lepromatous/lepromatous leprosy (BL/LL)), 23 Household contacts and 25 healthy controls were included in this study,by
convenience sampling. LL37 expression was measured at protein and mRNA level in newly diagnosed leprosy patients attending ALERT hospital, their household contacts and healthy controls.
Result: Plasma level LL37 was significantly higher in household contacts compared to lepromatous patients (p=0.017) and healthy controls (p=0.007). However, there was no statistically significant differences in mRNA expression level of LL37between the three groups; patients and contacts (p=0.3244), patient and controls (p=0.5560), contact and controls(p=0.0758) and within the two polar forms of leprosy; tuberculoid and lepromatous (p=0.3842).
Conclusion: - Our finding demonstrates that the low plasma level of LL37 in lepromatous patients may give a clue why there is a delay in clearing the bacilli from their body. However, measuring the level of LL37 at the infection site would be more informative.
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Keywords
Leprosy, M. leprae, Cathelicidin, LL37