title: What is the evidence that the putative Mycobacterium lepromatosis species causes diffuse lepromatous leprosy?
abstract: Han et al. have made a retrospective isolation of DNA from two patients with fatal Lucio's phenomenon. This DNA does have some molecular differences to M. leprae and may constitute a variant of M. leprae. However the experiments and data needed to confirm that this is a new leprosy-causing species have not yet been done. We have outlined the work that does need to be done. For the moment the assertion that 'M. lepromatosis' is a new leprosy-causing species is not proven.
authors: Thomas P
authors: TP
authors: Gillis
authors: David M
authors: DM
authors: Scollard
authors: Diana N J
authors: DN
authors: Lockwood
mesh_terms: D005798:Genes, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D015440:Leprosy, Lepromatous / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009166:Mycobacterium leprae / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S