A multidisciplinary group of tuberculosis experts from the TBnet and RESIST-TB networks have reached a consensus on key issues related to the molecular prediction of Mycobacterium tuberculosis antibiotic sensitivity or resistance and its clinical implications. The consensus document provides guidance for the design of therapeutic regimens and the optimization of treatments, and is intended to help clinicians manage tuberculosis patients. The paper, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases and led by Dr José Domínguez from the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP), is an update of a similar statement made in 2016. The publication presents a review of the current tools to rapidly identify resistance to drugs used in the treatment of tuberculosis.

-- The Experimental Tuberculosis Group at the IGTP has set up this trial, coordinated from Can Ruti, within the European project H2020 'SMA-TB'
-- The study will evaluate the efficacy and safety of adding acetylsalicylic acid or ibuprofen to the antibiotic treatments applied for tuberculosis
-- It is a phase II trial which will be carried out in South Africa and Georgia, two of the countries the WHO has in its sights to control this infectious disease
-- The trial has been prepared in the midst of the pandemic, with the added challenge of coordinating it with the restrictions and different stages of the epidemic in each of the countries involve

In 2016, the Retrovirology and Clinical Studies group at IrsiCaixa discovered how the absence of the Siglec-1 protein, involved in modulating the immune system, blocks the spread of HIV throughout the body. Now, a study led by the same research group and the Experimental Tuberculosis Unit of the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) has shown that, on the other hand, this same deficiency favours the dissemination of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the tuberculosis-causing agent. Thus, the absence of this protein helps to understand its role in different infectious contexts, and to shed light on its function in infected individuals. The study has also counted with the participation of the IVECAT research group, led by Francesc Borràs at the IGTP, as well as with the participation of more than 10 international research groups.