Detection of dapsone resistant Mycobacterium leprae by DNA sequence analysis from a Turkish relapsed leprosy patient

Abstract

Mycobacterium leprae obtained from the relapsed case after 43-year dapsone monotherapy was submitted to sequence analysis of the genes associated with resistance to antileprosy drugs for drug susceptibility testing. Single nucleotide substitution was revealed at the codon 55 of the folP gene, which had been reported to confer resistance to dapsone. No mutations in the rpoB and gyrA genes indicated this isolate was susceptible to rifampicin and fluoroquino-les respectively. Drug susceptibility was conducted easily and rapidly by the sequence analysis compared with that by mouse footpad method.