Mycobacterium leprae

Mycobacterium leprae (also known as the leprosy bacillus or Hansen's bacillus) is one of the two species of bacteria that cause Hansen’s disease (leprosy), a chronic but curable infectious disease that damages the peripheral nerves and targets the skin, eyes, nose, and muscles. It is an acid-fast, Gram-positive, rod shaped bacterium and an obligate intracellular parasite, which means, unlike its relative Mycobacterium tuberculosis, it cannot be grown in cell-free laboratory media. This is likely due to gene deletion and decay that the genome of the species has experienced via reductive evolution, which has caused the bacterium to depend heavily on its host for nutrients and metabolic intermediates. It has a narrow host range and apart from humans, the only other natural hosts are nine-banded armadillo and red squirrels. The bacteria infect mainly macrophages and Schwann cells, and are typically found congregated as a palisade. Mycobacterium leprae was sensitive to dapsone as a treatment alone, but since the 1960's, it has developed resistance against this antibiotic. Currently, a multidrug treatment (MDT) is recommended by the World Health Organization, including dapsone, rifampicin, and clofazimine. The species was discovered in 1873 by the Norwegian physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, and was the first bacterium to be identified as a cause of disease in humans. Mycobacterium leprae is an intracellular, pleomorphic, non-sporing, non-motile, acid-fast, pathogenic bacterium. It is an aerobic bacillus (rod-shaped bacterium) with parallel sides and round ends, surrounded by the characteristic waxy coating of mycolic acid unique to mycobacteria. It is Gram-positive by Gram staining, but Mycobacterium leprae was traditionally stained with carbol fuchsin in the Ziehl–Neelsen stain. Because the bacilli are less acid-fast than Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), the Fite-Faraco staining method, which has a lower acid concentration, is used now. In size and shape, it closely resembles MTB.