Trep-AB
Financiado
Repurposing clinically approved antibacterial drugs for treponematoses therapy
Current therapeutic options for human treponematoses, syphilis and yaws, are, broadly speaking, restricted to one antibiotic: injectable penicillin. The drug susceptibility profile of Treponema pallidum (T.p) is unknown because th...
Current therapeutic options for human treponematoses, syphilis and yaws, are, broadly speaking, restricted to one antibiotic: injectable penicillin. The drug susceptibility profile of Treponema pallidum (T.p) is unknown because the microorganism could not be grown in culture. Treatment failure after penicillin has been related to syphilis bacteria that survive in the central nervous system (CNS) and the potential of strains to acquire resistance to penicillin has recently been recognized. Yaws can be treated with azithromycin but there is a real risk that macrolide-resistant strains disseminate widely and jeopardize the global eradication campaign. I propose a research program to have other validated treatment options with good CNS penetration that are efficacious for all the stages of treponemal infection. Our preliminary results using computational prediction of drug activity based on similarity to drugs with known activity against T.p. and other spirochetes shows several candidate antibiotics. I will take advantage of recent developments in culture methods for determination of drug susceptibility to test 20 prioritized drugs. These results will be confirmed in experimentally infected rabbits treated with the investigational drugs and assessed for lesion development and T.p. burden. My second approach will exploit the established expertise of my team conducting randomized clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of the 2 most promising candidates compared to standard treatment to cure patients with syphilis/yaws. Such studies will incorporate in-depth studies of recurrent events among study participants, to further clarify the biological basis and identify mutations that confer resistance to B-lactams. New antibacterial oral drugs for the treatment of treponematoses will be a tremendous resource in case of penicillin treatment-failure, resistance, shortage, allergy, or for use in yaws combination regimens to reduce the likelihood of resistance selection.
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Duración del proyecto: 60 meses
Fecha Inicio: 2020-01-29
Fecha Fin: 2025-01-31
Fecha Fin: 2025-01-31
Línea de financiación: concedida
El organismo H2020 notifico la concesión del proyecto el día 2020-01-29
Línea de financiación objetivo
El proyecto se financió a través de la siguiente ayuda:
ERC-2019-STG:
ERC Starting Grant
Cerrada
hace 6 años
Presupuesto
El presupuesto total del proyecto asciende a
1M€
Líder del proyecto
FUNDACION PRIVADA DE LUCHA CONTRA EL SIDA
Otra investigación y desarrollo experimental en ciencias naturales y técnicas asociacion
Perfil tecnológico
TRL
4-5
50K
Perfil tecnológico
TRL
4-5
50K