Of the various ‘ancient diseases’, one of the longest lasting (and arguably notorious) is leprosy (leprosy was recognized in the ancient civilizations of China, Egypt and India). Early diagnosis and treatment with multidrug therapy, according to Journal of Ancient Diseases & Preventive Remedies, are the key elements in eliminating the disease as a public health concern.
The most common form of leprosy is causes by Mycobacterium leprae. Whilst conducted gene sequencing of this organism, the Swiss researchers (based at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) are the first to analyze a sister species called Mycobacterium lepromatosis. The genetic analysis suggests that the two species of bacteria split millions of years ago.
Despite being separated such a long time ago, the the two leprosy-causing species are nevertheless remarkably similar, genetically. At approximately 3.27 million base pairs, the M. lepromatosis genome is comparable in size to the M. leprae genome. This gives an idea of the scale of the work involved. This should help medical scientists gain new insights about the disease. In addition, having this sequence at the ready will make detection of M. lepromatosis easier.
Commenting on the research, Richard Truman, chief of the laboratory research branch at the National Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy) Program in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told the website Science: “It appears, to me, to be a landmark paper which really provides a bounty of insight into this newly recognized and little-understood organism.
The genetic analysis has been detailed in a paper published in the journal PNAS. The research is titled “Insight into the evolution and origin of leprosy bacilli from the genome sequence of Mycobacterium lepromatosis.”
