Project description
Novel tools for syphilis diagnosis and therapy
Syphilis is a complex bacterial infection with millions of new cases yearly and outcomes such as neurosyphilis, stillbirth and congenital transmission. Despite its burden, diagnosis and treatment have barely improved in 50 years, hindered by the difficulty in cultivating the causative agent Treponema pallidum. The ERC-funded BREAKFREE-Sy project will demonstrate that syphilis manifestations are linked to specific bacterial traits and host responses. Researchers will identify biomarkers and repurpose antibiotics through two pioneering clinical trials targeting neurosyphilis and syphilis in pregnancy – severe, neglected conditions needing alternatives to penicillin. New bacterial isolation protocols will support treatment monitoring and resistance testing. Ultimately, the project will provide innovative diagnostic tools and potential vaccine antigens to reduce syphilis complications.
Objective
For over 50 years, the tools for diagnosing, preventing, and treating syphilis have seen minimal progress, partly due to limitations in bacterial cultivation. Existing tools were primarily drawn from research on early-stage syphilis and evidence extrapolated to severe forms of the infection, leaving important unmet needs like the lack of predictive markers for neurosyphilis and mother-to-child-transmission, limited evidence on treatments for these conditions, and challenges in monitoring treatment failure. This project aims to shift the paradigm by demonstrating that the diverse manifestations of syphilis are not merely random infections in different bodily compartments but are intricately linked to unique bacterial traits and host responses that necessitate specific tools. Our goal is to discover manifestation-specific biomarkers, repurpose antibiotics for tailored treatments, and pioneering TPA isolation methods for treatment monitoring. Taking advantage of a unique network of collaborators in areas with a high incidence of severe syphilis, I will examine how severe clinical manifestations relate to genomic variations in TPA strains and with host humoral responses. A groundbreaking pan-proteomic array will allow identifying markers linked to clinical phenotypes and it will open avenues for discovery of new antigens as vaccine candidates. Furthermore, I will exploit the established expertise of my team on drug repurposing and conducting randomized clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of alternative antibiotics to cure patients with neurosyphilis and syphilis in pregnancy. Finally, I aim to pioneer methods for the first-time isolation of TPA from patient samples and conduct antimicrobial resistance testing in treatment failures. The resulting tools will be a tremendous resource for preventing adverse outcomes like neurological sequelae, stillbirth, congenital syphilis and treatment failure, especially in low-middle-income countries where most complications occur
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. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy pharmaceutical drugs vaccines
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine obstetrics
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy pharmaceutical drugs antibiotics
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
08916 Badalona
Spain
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