Vitamin D receptor expression levels determine the severity and complexity of disease progression among leprosy reaction patients

We studied the role of Vitamin D and its receptor (VDR) in leprosy disease progression. Majority of the individuals from Kolkata, India with type-I or type-II reaction have low levels of Vitamin D3 in serum. Interestingly, individuals with type II reaction associated with neuritis/ENL have very low VDR mRNA expression levels ranging from 5% to 10% only to that of the healthy control samples and this patients also have high bacilli index ranging from 3+ to 5+. This is the first report implicating that VDR expression levels may determine the complexity and severity of leprosy disease progression.