title: Further investigations on M. leprae. Growth promotion and inhibition by organic substances and observations on antagonistic and syntergistic effects.
abstract: The multiplication of 2 strains of M. leprae on a medium containing a sonic extract (SE), prepared from M. smegmatis, was promoted by cysteine, tryptophane and dimethylasulfoxide (DMSO), while glutamic acid, glutamine and histidine exerted variable effects.  The final effects of glutamic acid and glutamine were determined by the total concentration of both compounds together.  The presence of cysteine and glutamic acid alone or together with DMSO abolished all inhibitory effects.  Desferal did not enable the multiplication of M. leprae on media devoid of SE prepared from M. smegmatis.  However with SE and 0.005 per cent and 0.002 per cent concentrations of Desferal its initial growth was accelerated.  Its final counts, noted after an 8-month incubation, did not exceed those observed without Desferal.  Puring and pyrimidine compounds promoted markekly the multiplication of M. leprae (counts greater than 3 times 10-7/ml).  The highest counts were observed with pyrimidines (thymine, thymidine, cytosine) applied single or combined.
mesh_terms: D003545:Cysteine / Q000494:pharmacology; D003676:Deferoxamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D004121:Dimethyl Sulfoxide / Q000494:pharmacology; D004336:Drug Antagonism; D004357:Drug Synergism; D005971:Glutamates / Q000494:pharmacology; D005973:Glutamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D006639:Histidine / Q000494:pharmacology; D009166:Mycobacterium leprae / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000254:growth & development; D011687:Purines / Q000494:pharmacology; D011743:Pyrimidines / Q000494:pharmacology; D014364:Tryptophan / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D005971:Glutamates; D011687:Purines; D011743:Pyrimidines; D005973:Glutamine; D006639:Histidine; D014364:Tryptophan; D003676:Deferoxamine; D003545:Cysteine; D004121:Dimethyl Sulfoxide