Research Projects

Patients with leprosy who develop Erythema Nodosum Leprosum (ENL) is an immune-mediated inflammatory consequence that can lead to nerve function impairments and disability if left untreated or managed inappropriately. One of the biggest challenges in treating leprosy patients is development of leprosy reaction either type 1 (Reversal Reaction, RR) or type 2 reaction (Erythema Nodosum Leprosum, ENL) which can manifest prior to, during, or following the administration of multi-drug therapy (MDT) for leprosy. Although ENL is considered a neutrophilic immune-complex mediated condition, little is known about the direct role of neutrophils in ENL. There is significant need for further understating of the immunopathogenesis and identification of biomarkers to improve the clinical stratification and therapeutics. One of the most interesting recent findings was that the neutrophilic population is not homogeneous. Neutrophilic polarization leads to different phenotypes (for example: a pro and antitumor profile) and functional characteristics There is little evidence that leprosy has a neutrophil subpopulation in the ENL. Therefore, the primary goal of this project was to perform the neutrophil phenotyping in order to determine the various subpopulations of neutrophils and their associations with a wide range of ENL severity. It has already been proven that neutrophils are directly associated with ENL in leprosy, however there is no data on neutrophil-derived miRNA-based signatures except skin lesion miRNA signatures in connection to ENL is leprosy. In light of recent developments in neutrophil-derived miRNA, we would also like to investigate the pattern of miRNA expression in leprosy patient neutrophils on ENL (including stimulation of neutrophils with M. leprae antigen) how it contributes to their pathogenic profile. This would allow us to assess the role of inflammation in miRNA regulation and modulation.