Armadillo as a model for studying chemotherapy of leprosy: preliminary studies.
In order to determine the suitability of the armadillos as a model of human leprosy for chemotherapeutic studies, especially in evaluating newer anti-leprosy drugs, uninfected Armadillos were used to study the metabolic disposition of DDS. Serum DDS levels ranged from 500 ng/ml at 3 hours to 13 ng/ml at 96 hours after intravenous administration of DDS (1 mg/kg). In an ad libitum feeding trial of DDS it was found that the level of serum DDS varied according to the dose of DDS, and even at a dose of 0.0001%, the animals maintained MIC of DDS against M. leprae. Finally, it was demonstrated that armadillos acetylate DDS to MADDS and 7-9% of DDS is acetylated by armadillos.
D000818:Animals; D001135:Armadillos; D003622:Dapsone / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D007918:Leprosy / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D004490:Xenarthra
D003622:Dapsone; C018965:monoacetyldapsone