Evaluation of phenolic glycolipid-I (PGL-I) antibody as a multidrug therapy (MDT) monitor.

Since phenolic glycolipid-I (PGL-I) is an unequivocal marker for Mycobacterium leprae, this antigen has been a good candidate for the serodiagnosis and monitoring of the effectiveness of leprosy chemotherapy. The present study, a continuation of an earlier report, was undertaken to estimate PGL-I antibody titers in 40 leprosy patients 3 and 6 months after starting MDT. All the leprosy groups showed significant declines in anti PGL-I reactivity after 6 months. There was a good correlation between bacteriological indices (BI) and anti PGL-I antibody levels. Thus, PGL-I based serology may be useful in monitoring the response to multidrug therapy.