@article{2204,
  keywords = {Antigens, Bacterial, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Glycolipids, Humans, Leprostatic Agents, leprosy, Mycobacterium leprae, Prospective Studies},
  author = {Cho S N and Cellona R V and Villahermosa L G and Fajardo T T and Balagon M V and Abalos R M and Tan E V and Walsh G P and Kim J D and Brennan P J},
  title = {Detection of phenolic glycolipid I of Mycobacterium leprae in sera from leprosy patients before and after start of multidrug therapy.},
  abstract = {<p>A total of 100 untreated new leprosy patients were recruited prospectively and examined for the presence of phenolic glycolipid I (PGL-I) antigen in their serum specimens by dot enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using rabbit anti-PGL-I antiserum. The presence of circulating PGL-I antigen was closely related to the bacterial indices (BI) of the patients. The PGL-I antigen was detectable in 27 (93.1%) of 29 patients with a BI of 4.0 or above and in 15 (68.2%) of 22 patients with a BI of 3.0 to 3.9. However, none of the 37 patients with a BI of less than 1.9 had detectable PGL-I antigen by the methods used in this study. The level of PGL-I in serum declined rapidly by about 90% 1 month after the start of multidrug therapy. This study showed clearly that anti-PGL-I IgM antibodies and circulating PGL-I antigen levels reflect the bacterial loads in untreated leprosy patients. The serological parameters based on the PGL-I antigen may therefore be useful in the assessment of leprosy patients at the time of diagnosis and possibly in monitoring patients following chemotherapy.</p>},
  year = {2001},
  journal = {Clinical and diagnostic laboratory immunology},
  volume = {8},
  pages = {138-42},
  month = {2001 Jan},
  issn = {1071-412X},
  url = {https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC96023/pdf/cd000138.pdf},
  doi = {10.1128/CDLI.8.1.138-142.2001},
  language = {eng},
}