The assessment of ROM and RMM combined chemotherapy outcome on an experimental leprosy in mice footpad

Relevance. The leprosy standard combined therapy recommended by the World Health Organization includes: dapsone, rifampicin and clofazimine. In the Russian Federation however only two of them are registered, making full-fledged leprosy patients therapy impossible. Alternative leprosy treatment regimens with various combinations of rifampicin and fluoroquinolones have been proposed, eg. rifampicin, ofloxacin and minocycline (ROM) or rifampicin, moxifloxacin, and minocycline (RMM), but the assessment of their effectiveness is ambiguous.

The purpose of study is the assessment of ROM and RMM combination leprosy drug therapy outcomes on an experimental disease model - in the paw pads of mice.

Material and methods. the experiment was performed on 50 BALB/cNude mice. Infectious material was obtained from a patient of the Sergiev Posad Branch of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "GNTSDK" of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation diagnosed with "Lepromatous leprosy" (A.30.5 according to ICD10). The reproduction of the experimental model of the disease was carried out according to the Shepard model at mouse paw pads. The presence of M. leprae was assessed by real-time PCR using the multicopy species-specific region of the M. leprae genome RLEP. The experiment included the stages of an experimental leprosy reproduction in mice paw pads and subsequent treatment using ROM and RMM combination chemotherapy regimens.

Results. The obtained results demonstrate the high efficacy for both ROM and RMM combination chemotherapy regimens for the treatment of experimental leprosy in mice.

Conclusions. The obtained results of high efficiency of experimental leprosy chemotherapy with ROM or RMM regimens paw the way to recommend conducting clinical trials of these regimens in leprosy patients.