Effect of Relationship between Protein Oxidation and Total Thiols in Progression of Leprosy

Objective: In several countries including India, leprosy is an older disease & until now continuous to be an important health issue. Leprosy is a chronic granulomatous disease, the causative agent for which is mycobacterium leprae. Due to imbalance between natural antioxidants and oxidative stress is significant event occurs that influences the pathogenesis of leprosy. Considering this the study was carried out to find, what type of relationship between MDA, Protein carbonyl and thiols as disease advances.

Methods: 50 diagnosed leprosy patients & 50 healthy controls were included in this study. In leprosy group, 16 were Paucibacillary (PB) and 34 were Multibacillary (MB) type leprosy patients.

Results: Serum Protein carbonyl and serum Malondialdehyde increased in leprosy patients than controlling. Further analysis reveals that the serum malondialdehyde was significantly increased in MB leprosy patients than PB leprosy patients. On the other hand, our proposed system significantly lowers the total thiols in leprosy patients when compared with controls. Serum total thiols were lower in MB leprosy than PB leprosy patients. Among leprosy patients the negative correlation of Malondialdehyde with total thiol and Protein carbonyl with total thiols was observed.

Conclusion: Thus, as protein oxidation and lipid per oxidation in leprosy increases, the total thiols decreases which may lead to modifications of protein and lipids that are responsible for severity of disease hence therapy aimed at reducing generation of free radicals that can result in oxidative stress and as a result a modification of proteins and lipids.