| Grant number: | 10/19286-3 |
| Support Opportunities: | Regular Research Grants |
| Start date: | March 01, 2011 |
| End date: | August 31, 2013 |
| Field of knowledge: | Health Sciences - Medicine - Pathological Anatomy and Clinical Pathology |
| Principal Investigator: | Cléverson Teixeira Soares |
| Grantee: | Cléverson Teixeira Soares |
| Host Institution: | Instituto Lauro de Souza Lima (ILSL). Coordenadoria de Controle de Doenças (CCD). Secretaria da Saúde (São Paulo - Estado). Bauru , SP, Brazil |
| Associated researchers: | Alex Fiorini de Carvalho ; Ana Paula Favaro Trombone Garlet ; Andrea de Faria Fernandes Belone ; Fernando Augusto Soares ; Jaison Antonio Barreto ; Patrícia Sammarco Rosa ; Somei Ura |
Abstract
Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease whose etiologic agent is the Mycobacterium leprae, and in Brazil its remains a major public health problem. According to the ministry of health, approximately forty thousand new cases per year have been reported in the last ten years. M. leprae is an obligate intracellular parasite that replicates slowly, it has long incubation period and presents a small number of genes that control its metabolism. These features make the host-parasite interaction unique in leprosy patients, causing a chronic, spectral, long lasting disease, with multiple forms, and posing a challenge for clinical practice, both for diagnosis and treatment of its reactional forms. The pathophysiological mechanisms of disease at the molecular level are virtually unknown. Knowledge about these mechanisms is crucial for understanding the pathophysiology and to discover new ways of treating the disease. In this project, we propose to evaluate gene expression in all forms of leprosy and in its reactional states, using the DNA chip microarray technique which allows investigating mRNA and miRNA expression in a large number of genes. Our hypothesis is that the characterization of gene expression profile using the "microarray" technique can greatly contribute to the knowledge of leprosy, allowing to: (1) identify those genes involved in the whole spectrum of leprosy and its reactional forms and, consequently, to establish the molecular profile of the disease, (2) increase knowledge on pathophysiology and mechanisms of bacillus-host interaction in leprosy and (3) to identify potential biomarkers that may lead to new treatment schemes for leprosy. Therefore, the results may contribute to definition of new clinical-pathological standards, besides molecular profiles, which will guide future studies about the disease. (AU)
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