Europeans to fight tuberculosis with innovative technique
A European team of scientists is working on making new tuberculosis treatments a reality by developing better diagnostic imaging technology. The study is supported by the PREDICT-TB ('Model-based preclinical development of anti-tuberculosis drug combinations') project, which has clinched almost EUR 14.8 million from the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). IMI is a public-private partnership between the EU and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA).
The PREDICT-TB team is working together with the European
pharmaceutical industry; the project's coordinator is the United
Kingdom-based GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world's leading
pharmaceutical companies. Results will help the many patients
suffering from this airborne infectious disease: almost 9
million people worldwide currently have tuberculosis.
The researchers are developing a set of in vitro and in
vivo trials that will give them the information they need to
make key decisions about effective treatments. They also plan to
optimise the clinical studies of novel combinations of drugs to
fight this disease.
'These data will, first, offer us an early evaluation of
the efficiency of the combinations of drugs used to treat
tuberculosis, and second, they will allow us to optimise the
clinical studies with patients,' said Juan José Vaquero
from the Bioengineering and Aerospace Engineering Department at
the Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M) in Spain, one of the
PREDICT-TB partners.
The UC3M group is researching and developing the new
preclinical imaging technology, and is working on methods for
processing and analysing images for the assessment and follow-up
of illness in animal models.
'We are going to develop new in vivo molecular image
devices and also work on the synthesis of very specific probes
for the biomarkers of this illness that have been identified by
other partners in the consortium,' Professor José Vaquero
said.
'We are collaborating very closely with GlaxoSmithKline,
whose laboratories are going to use our equipment, as well as
with specialists from the Infectious Disease and Microbiology
Service of Gregorio Marañón University General
Hospital in Madrid, who have a great deal of experience working
with both the biology and the clinical aspects of tuberculosis.
This facilitates the transformation of our results into clinical
applications.'
The objective of UC3M, in the short term, is to develop a
tomographic X-ray technique that screens quickly yet
inexpensively. This technique will give researchers the
opportunity to keep an eye on the evolution of the disease and
to determine how effective the treatments are in animal models.
The team's long-term objective team is to perfect this technique
and make it more sensitive and specific. Positron emission
tomography (PET) will be included, a nuclear medicine imaging
technique that generates a three-dimensional image for pictures
of functional processes in the body. Quantitative measurements
can be taken with this more sensitive technique.
The group also plans to introduce changes in imaging
technology to ensure that better resolution is obtained. 'This
way, with just one examination, we will be able to visualise the
complete lung of a rat or guinea pig, with enough detail to
detect the disease at its earliest possible stage,' Professor
José Vaquero explained.
The PREDICT-TB project is pioneering research in
tuberculosis by investigating the use of quantitative molecular
imaging.
Each year, tuberculosis affects 5 million patients in
developing countries. A cure is possible for only 60 % of them,
and one of the biggest challenges in fighting tuberculosis is to
ensure that patients are treated for 6 to 24 months. Both
support and financing for trials are limited.
For more information, please visit:
Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI):
http://www.imi.europa.eu/
PREDICT-TB:
http://www.imi.europa.eu/content/predict-tb
Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M):
http://www.uc3m.es/portal/page/portal/home
CORDIS
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