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Abstract Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae. It has long been recognized that leprosy clusters in families and it is often regarded as a genetic disease. Dysregulation of both B- and T-cell responses is observed in leprosy. T cell dependent immunity to M. leprae is high in healthy exposed individuals as well as in TT but is strikingly absent in LL patients. Thus at lepromatous pole, patients show weak CMI or anergy to M. leprae antigens. In this study we evaluated the effect of topical application of DNCB in addition to multi drug therapy, in cases of LL, to stimulate the CMI. We found that same effect, as that of multi drug therapy alone was obtained but in much shorter duration of treatment. However we failed to prove any effect of the used DNCB on the CMI. We concluded that topical DNCB might be an encouraging new line of adjuvant therapy in LL patients. |