Publications by authors named "Edilbert P Nahn"
Article Synopsis
- Leprosy is a chronic infection caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, which can lead to severe inflammatory reactions such as erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL) in 1 in 3 individuals, even those receiving treatment.
- Recent research indicates that co-infection with Toxoplasma gondii significantly increases the risk of these leprosy reactions, particularly ENL, with about 87.7% of patients with leprosy reactions testing positive for T. gondii.
- The study found that higher levels of IgE, a specific immunoglobulin, in patients co-infected with T. gondii may serve as a biomarker for predicting ENL episodes, suggesting
Leprosy is an infectious disease still highly prevalent in Brazil, having been detected around 27,863 new cases in 2019. Exposure to may not be sufficient to trigger the disease, which seems to be influenced by host immunogenetics to determine resistance or susceptibility. The purinergic receptor P2X7 plays a crucial role in immunity, inflammation, neurological function, bone homeostasis, and neoplasia and is associated with several infectious and non-infectious diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNinety-one patients with different clinical forms of leprosy, 36 lepromatous (LL), 33 tuberculoid (TL), and 22 dimorphic (DL), and 31 healthy volunteer donors were included in this study. Total complement system (CS) activity was assessed by hemolytic methods, whereas individual components were quantified by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Under conditions allowing initiation of cascade by the classic pathway (CP) but not alternative pathway (AP) activation, significant CS consumption was detected only in sera from patients with LL.
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