Project description
A simple breath test for respiratory infections
When a person exhales, they release tiny droplets and particles collectively referred to as exhaled breath aerosol (XBA) that potentially includes infectious agents like viruses or bacteria. XBA is of interest in medical research because it may carry markers or indicators of respiratory infections or diseases. The EU-funded BreathForDx project will use tuberculosis as a model to develop a scalable XBA sampling device for diagnosis, screening and identification of antimicrobial resistance. Researchers will evaluate various parameters, including its usability and cost-effectiveness. The key objective is to enhance individual and public health against respiratory infections through a simple breath sample and point-of-care testing.
Objective
Respiratory infections resulted in >7 million deaths in 2020 and were responsible for 7 of the last 9 pandemics, causing trillions of €s in economic losses. Despite the importance of early detection for individual health and pandemic control, flawed sampling methods for respiratory infections limit the impact of highly-sensitive molecular diagnostics. BreathForDx’s overall goal is to tackle this problem by establishing exhaled breath aerosol (XBA) as a novel, evidence-based sample for respiratory infections in three use cases: diagnosis, screening, and antimicrobial resistance, using tuberculosis (TB) as a model infection. The project will leverage innovation in bioaerosol and material science, as well as the multidisciplinary (including academia, industry and NGOs) consortium’s track record of delivering transformative diagnostic innovation. More specifically, we will optimise an innovative, easy-to-use, scalable XBA sampling device, and compare it to a face mask sampling device coupled with rapid molecular detection in three clinical studies. We will evaluate the XBA sampling efficiency of these devices using the Respiratory Aerosol Sampling Chamber as a benchmark. Next, we will assess performance of the devices for diagnosis of TB and drug-resistance among symptomatic patients in a high burden EU country. In parallel, we will assess the feasibility of multiplexing XBA samples for multiple respiratory pathogens (i.e. TB, influenza, SARS-CoV-2) in a screening use case. Accuracy and feasibility data will be complemented by data on acceptability and usability, as well as cost-effectiveness and impact modelling to inform the implementation potential of the novel devices across different use cases. We envision a world in which a single breath sample, coupled with point-of-care molecular diagnostics, enables accessible and accurate pathogen and resistance detection of highly transmissible respiratory infections, thereby improving both individual and public health.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic healthepidemiologypandemics
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesinfectious diseasesRNA virusesinfluenza
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacydrug resistance
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinepneumologytuberculosis
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesinfectious diseasesRNA virusescoronaviruses
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
69120 Heidelberg
Germany