Electrophysiological Study of Nerves in Type-II Reaction in Leprosy.

BACKGROUND: Leprosy is a chronic granulomatous infection primarily affecting the peripheral nervous system, skin and reticuloendothelial system. Cutaneous nerves are severely affected in lepra reaction and this leads to morbidity. OBJECTIVE: To study electrophysiological pattern of different nerves involved in Type-II reactions in leprosy. METHOD: The present study was undertaken in 21 leprosy patients with Type-II reactions attending in and out-patient department of Dermatology & Venereology, B.R.D. Medical College, Gorakhpur from July 2005 to October 2006. This was a prospective case control study in which 20 healthy, age and sex matched people with no evidence of any disease (particularly nerve involvement) were included. LIMITATION: Lesser number of cases were studied. RESULT: The proximal motor conduction latency was significantly prolonged in both ulnar and common peroneal nerve and proximal motor conduction velocity was also significantly reduced. On examining the values beyond 2S.D. of the control value, distal latency was not affected and only proximal conduction was affected in ulnar nerve. CONCLUSION: In Type II lepra reaction the motor conduction abnormalities are not prominent. Abnormalities are relatively more marked in the proximal segment.

Optimization of inclusion body solubilization and renaturation of recombinant human growth hormone from Escherichia coli.

Recombinant human growth hormone (r-hGH) was expressed in Escherichia coli as inclusion bodies. In 10 h of fed-batch fermentation, 1.6 g/L of r-hGH was produced at a cell concentration of 25 g dry cell weight/L. Inclusion bodies from the cells were isolated and purified to homogeneity. Various buffers with and without reducing agents were used to solubilize r-hGH from the inclusion bodies and the extent of solubility was compared with that of 8 M urea as well as 6 M Gdn-HCl. Hydrophobic interactions as well as ionic interactions were found to be the dominant forces responsible for the formation of r-hGH inclusion bodies during its high-level expression in E. coli. Complete solubilization of r-hGH inclusion bodies was observed in 100 mM Tris buffer at pH 12.5 containing 2 M urea. Solubilization of r-hGH inclusion bodies in the presence of low concentrations of urea helped in retaining the existing native-like secondary structures of r-hGH, thus improving the yield of bioactive protein during refolding. Solubilized r-hGH in Tris buffer containing 2 M urea was found to be less susceptible to aggregation during buffer exchange and thus was refolded by simple dilution. The r-hGH was purified by use of DEAE-Sepharose ion-exchange chromatography and the pure monomeric r-hGH was finally obtained by using size-exclusion chromatography. The overall yield of the purified monomeric r-hGH was approximately 50% of the initial inclusion body proteins and was found to be biologically active in promoting growth of rat Nb2 lymphoma cell lines.

N-terminus of mature heat-labile enterotoxin chain B is critical for its extracellular secretion in Vibrio cholerae.

The effects of addition of a few amino acids to the amino- and carboxy-terminal regions of the mature portion of the heat-labile enterotoxin chain B (LTB) of Escherichia coli on protein export, secretion and assembly were investigated. In E. coli, LTB (secretory protein) with or without the extension at the N- or C-terminus accumulated in the periplasmic fraction. For Vibrio cholerae, LTB with the extension at the C-terminus was exported to the periplasm followed by secretion to the extracellular milieu. However, LTB with the N-terminus extension was exported to the periplasm only. Our findings suggest that in the case of V. cholerae, the N-terminus of the mature LTB plays an important role in its secretion to the extracellular milieu.

Peripheral nerve abscess in leprosy: report of twenty cases.

During the year 1994-1995, 20 of the 67 leprosy patients attending the dermatology department with any kind of nerve involvement were found to be having nerve abscess. These abscesses occurred in all types of leprosy (except the Indeterminate) and a variety of nerve trunks and cutaneous nerves. In none of the instances the abscess was associated with reaction. All the patients were surgically treated, without any steroid therapy. All cases showed significant improvement whenever there was nerve function deficit. Similarly, pain was relieved in all cases, when it was present.

Late reversal reaction after 10 years of adequately treated leprosy.

Differentiation between a relapse or late reversal reaction following completion of regular drug therapy in patients with leprosy is often difficult, though it has definite therapeutic implications. The present case documents a late reversal reaction occurring an unusually long time after the completion of multi-drug therapy.

Electro-physiological evaluation of nerves during reactions in leprosy.

Forty-two patients with leprosy (7 with tuberculoid type, 30 borderline, 5 lepromatous) were studied electrophysiologically during reactions. Thirty-three had type I reactions while 9 had type II reactions. Each patient received 60 mg/day prednisolone tapered over a 6-week period. Motor conduction studies were performed on one clinically affected and one unaffected nerve and were repeated 12 weeks after the beginning of steroid therapy. Significant motor conduction abnormalities were observed in 14 affected (33.3%) and 8 unaffected nerves (19.1%). The majority of these nerves were in patients with borderline leprosy having type I reactions. Following steroid therapy, nerve function improved in 14 affected (33.3%) and 20 unaffected nerves (47.66%). However, 5 affected (10.2%) and 12 unaffected nerves (28.5%) showed a worsening of nerve function following steroid therapy. The majority of the nerves that showed improvement with steroid therapy had type I reactions, while those that showed deterioration had type II reactions. Steroids improved nerve function mainly in patients with type I reactions. Their role in patients with type II reactions remains debatable.

Mutilating keratoderma with deaf-mutism.

A 30 year old woman presented with typical lesions of mutilating keratoderma. The patient was deaf and dumb. Hyperkeratosis of palms and soles was present since infancy. Constriction of digits started by the age of 5 years. The clinical diagnosis was supported by histopathological examination.

High-level production and one-step purification of biologically active human growth hormone in Escherichia coli.

A plasmid has been constructed to direct the synthesis of recombinant human growth hormone (re-hGH) in Escherichia coli as a fusion protein containing a His6 tag at the N-terminus under the control of the T5 promoter. The re-hGH was synthesized in large amounts and accumulated in the form of inclusion bodies upon induction with IPTG. Inclusion bodies were solubilized in 6 M guanidine.HCl and the re-hGH was purified by single-step affinity chromatography on Ni(2+)-nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) agarose. At the shake flask level, the purified re-hGH was obtained with a yield of 30 mg/l of culture. The re-hGH was biologically active in a node rat lymphoma (Nb2) cell bioassay.

Keratoacanthoma centrifugum marginatum.

A case of 38-year-old male with multiple keratoacanthoma centrifugum marginatum is reported. Clinical presentation was in the form of multiple, firm, non-tender skin coloured nodules of variable sizes. Diagnosis was confirmed by the histopathological examination. The case is being reported because it is a rare variant of keratoacanthoma.

Genetic nature of vitiligo.

Four hundred vitiligo patients and 100 non-vitiliginous controls were studied to find out the prevalence of vitiligo in relatives of patients and controls. The difference was found to be statistically highly significant. The data reflected that there is some genetic mechanism involved in the etiology of vitiligo. Respective relatives of all forms of the disease in the vitiligo group showed a clear preponderance compared to controls. There was clustering of affected relatives in vitiligo cases compared to controls. The ratio of affected and unaffected siblings with unaffected parents or one parent affected, the ratio in the children of probands, the ratio in children of affected paternal and maternal grandparents of probands, suggest the polygenic nature of vitiligo.

Clinical profile of herpes zoster ophthalmicus.

Herpes zoster ophthalmicus was seen in 22 cases out of 195 cases of herpes zoster (11.3% incidence). It was affecting mainly adults (90.9%). Oedema over the lids (81.8%) was invariably present and lead to ptosis. Mucopurulent conjunctivitis, predominantly mucoid (72.7%) was the commonest manifestation associated with vesicles over the lid margins. Sectorial (22.7%) and diffuse (9.1%) episcleritis appeared in later part of first week, while nodular episcleritis was observed in one case only on 12th day of the disease. Nummular keratitis was seen in 31.8% of cases between 8-10 days. Iritis and iridocyclitis was seen in 45.4% of cases out of which 36.3% had secondary ocular hypertension (glaucoma). Neuroparalytic keratitis and internal ophthalmoplegia were detected in one patient each. Postherpetic neuralgia occurred in 22.7% of cases and was uncommon in younger age group (below 40 years, 4.5%). Carbamazepine was effective in relieving the herpetic pain.

Changing phage pattern of Staphylococcus in pyoderma cases.

Staphylococcus aureus is a major pathogen for pyoderma in India. Phage pattern of bacteria gives valuable information in epidemiological studies of infection. Two hundred and two strains of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from pyoderma cases at Gorakhpur, were phage grouped and phage typed. It was found that 43.1 percent strains were not typable. Most common group was mixed phage group (23.8 percent) followed by phage group III (12.4 percent). Predominant phage types in mixed phage group was 84/81/85 and in phage group III was 84/85.

Pattern of leprosy disabilities in Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh).

Out of 514 leprosy cases studied, 229(44.56%) had disability. Disability was most commonly seen in lepromatous leprosy. There was an increasing trend in disability with increasing age of patient and duration of disease. Disability rate was higher in males as compared to females. Nerve thickening and reactional states were more common in disabled cases. Dapsone treated group showed a disability rate of 63.8% as compared to 30.0% in untreated group. Hand was the most commonly affected site and mobile claw hand was the single most common disability. The overall disability index-D.I. (2) of Bachelli was 1.25 and lepromatous cases had highest D.I. (1.89). Disability index was higher in males and was found to increase with increasing age of patient and duration of disease.