Leprosy is a chronic
infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, which primarily infects macrophages and Schwann cells, affecting skin and peripheral nerves. Clinically, the most common form of identification is through the observation of
anesthetic lesions on skin; however, up to 30% of infected patients may not present this clinical manifestation. Currently, the gold standard diagnostic test for
leprosy is based on skin lesion biopsy, which is invasive and presents low sensibility for suspect cases. Therefore, the development of a fast, sensible and noninvasive method that identifies infected patients would be helpful for assertive diagnosis. The aim of this work was to identify
lipid markers in
leprosy patients directly from skin imprints, using a mass spectrometric analytical strategy. For skin imprint samples, a 1 cm(2)
silica plate was gently pressed against the skin of patients or healthy volunteers. Imprinted
silica lipids were extracted and submitted to direct-infusion electrospray ionization high-resolution mass spectrometry (ESI-HRMS). All samples were differentiated using a lipidomics-based data workup employing multivariate data analysis, which helped electing different
lipid markers, for example, mycobacterial
mycolic acids, inflammatory and apoptotic molecules were identified as
leprosy patients' markers. Otherwise,
phospholipids and
gangliosides were pointed as healthy volunteers' skin
lipid markers, according to normal skin composition. Results indicate that
silica plate skin imprinting associated with ESI-HRMS is a promising fast and sensible
leprosy diagnostic method. With a prompt
leprosy diagnosis, an early and effective treatment could be feasible and thus the chain of
leprosy transmission could be abbreviated.