Activity of Home-made Ofloxacin Against M. leprae in Mice and its Clinical Trial in Multibacillary Leprosy / 中华皮肤科杂志

ABSTRACT

Seventy days after inoculation of 1. 0 ? 104 M. leprae to the foot--pads,the mice were treated with home-made ofloxacin 150mg/kg daily by gavage 5 times weekly for 63 days. The results showed that M. leprae multiplied well in the foot--pads of untreated mice,but no growth of M. lepare were found in the foot-pads of the mice treated with home-made ofloxacin, imported ofloxacin or rifampin until 12 months after infection of M. leprae. Eleven newly diagnosed and untreated BL/LL patients and 2 recently relapsed patients after dapsone monotherapy were treated with home--made ofloxacin 400mg daily 6 times weekly for 12 weeks. The results showed that the skin lesions of all patients markedly improved at the end of therapy. The mean morphological index(MI) in skin smear decreased from 11. 89% before therapy to 2. 59% at the end of 2 week treatment,and to 0% at the end of 4 week treatment. The mean bacteriological index(MI) decreased from 4. 28 before therapy to 3. 90 at the end of therapy. During the therapy, 4 patients developed type Ⅱ lepra reaction, but all patients tolerated the drug well. The study showed that the therapeutic effect of home-made ofloxacin is similar to that of imported one as reported in the literature. The home-made ofloxacin can be used in multidrug therapy for leprosy.