Due to the advent of multi-drug therapy (MDT) recommended by the WHO, for the treatment of leprosy, presently, leprosy is regarded as a “curable disease”. The number of new cases in Japan is relatively very low, due to which the disease is likely to be neglected, but on scientific grounds, there is a necessity to perform in depth studies. Leprosy caused by M. leprae is still unclear on various aspects including transmission, immunology, nerve damage etc. Here we introduce the recent advances in the field of basic leprosy research.

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Federal government set up the institutions for the study and treatment of Hansen's disease patients in Hawaii in 1905. Then in 1917, a legislation was made to build a national leprosarium (leper home), authorize the Surgeon General (SG) to receive into that institution any person afflicted with leprosy who presents himself or herself for care, detention, and treatment, or any person afflicted with leprosy duly consigned to said home by the proper health authorities. The National Leprosarium (later renamed as National Hansen's Disease Center) opened in Carville in 1922. Although promin treatment had started in the early 1940s, the Public Health Service Act of 1944 retained the SG's authority for detention and apprehension. Discharge codes were gradually loosened since then, but the efforts to revise the Act were never successful for a long time. It was in 1985 when the Act was abolished. Provision of longterm care for new patients at the Center was terminated finally in 1997.

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Activities of newly synthesized fluoroquinolnes WQ-3345 and WQ-3402 against M.leprae were measured by using the Buddemeyer method. The % inhibition of the examined drugs for M. leprae was in the order of RFP> WQ-3402 > SPFX > GFLX > WQ-3345 > LVFX. The anti-M. leprae activity of WQ-3402 was found to be strongest in these five fluoroquinolones when examined by this method, and the activity of WQ-3345 was weaker than that of GFLX.
The anti-M. leprae activities of WQ-3345 and WQ-3402 were measured by a mouse footpad method using nude mice. The inhibitory effects on the growth of M. leprae inoculated into the footpads were found to be incomplete after orally administered with WQ-3345 or WQ-3402 respectively at dosages of 10 and 20 mg/kg, and the incomplete inhibition was again found even at a dosage of 30, 40 or 50 mg/kg in the latter.

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