Current prevention methods for the transmission of Mycobacterium leprae, the causative agent of leprosy, are inadequate as suggested by the rate of new leprosy cases reported. Simple large-scale detection methods for M. leprae infection are crucial for early detection of leprosy and disease control. The present study investigates the production and seroreactivity of a recombinant polypeptide composed of various M. leprae protein epitopes. The structural and physicochemical parameters of this construction were assessed using in silico tools. Parameters like subcellular localization, presence of signal peptide, primary, secondary, and tertiary structures, and 3D model were ascertained using several bioinformatics tools. The resultant purified recombinant polypeptide, designated rMLP15, is composed of 15 peptides from six selected M. leprae proteins (ML1358, ML2055, ML0885, ML1811, ML1812, and ML1214) that induce T cell reactivity in leprosy patients from different hyperendemic regions. Using rMLP15 as the antigen, sera from 24 positive patients and 14 healthy controls were evaluated for reactivity via ELISA. ELISA-rMLP15 was able to diagnose 79.17% of leprosy patients with a specificity of 92.86%. rMLP15 was also able to detect the multibacillary and paucibacillary patients in the same proportions, a desirable addition in the leprosy diagnosis. These results summarily indicate the utility of the recombinant protein rMLP15 in the diagnosis of leprosy and the future development of a viable screening test.

中文翻译：

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麻风分枝杆菌的重组多肽作为麻风病血清学检测的潜在工具。

麻风分枝杆菌（麻风的病原体）的传播目前的预防方法是不足的，如新报告的麻风病发病率所表明的那样。简单的大规模麻风分枝杆菌感染检测方法对于麻风病的早期检测和疾病控制至关重要。本研究调查了由各种麻风分枝杆菌组成的重组多肽的产生和血清反应性蛋白表位。使用计算机工具评估了该构造的结构和物理化学参数。使用多种生物信息学工具确定了诸如亚细胞定位，信号肽的存在，一级，二级和三级结构以及3D模型之类的参数。所得纯化的重组多肽，称为rMLP15，由来自六个选定的麻风杆菌的15个肽组成蛋白质（ML1358，ML2055，ML0885，ML1811，ML1812和ML1214）在来自不同高流行地区的麻风患者中诱导T细胞反应性。使用rMLP15作为抗原，通过ELISA评估了24名阳性患者和14名健康对照者的血清反应性。ELISA-rMLP15能够诊断出79.17％的麻风病患者，特异性为92.86％。rMLP15还能够以相同的比例检测多细菌和脓疱患者，这在麻风病诊断中是一个理想的选择。这些结果概括地表明了重组蛋白rMLP15在麻风病诊断中的用途以及可行的筛选试验的未来发展。