Objective
TB is one of the most deadly infectious disease in the world. The high rates of patient non-compliance lead to more than three million deaths per year, as well as, to the creation of chronic, infectious, drug-resistant TB strains, against which almost all existing antibiotics are ineffective or prohibitively toxic. A short course of chemotherapy (two months or less) would significantly increase patient compliance, substantially reduce the rate of emergence of antibiotic resistance, decrease side-effects of treatment, and materially decrease the costs of treatment.
We have made four scientific breakthroughs which indicate that it is feasible to develop such a drug:
1. As part of a research project supported by the EC, we have recently solved the 3-D structure of several persistence related drug targets of M. tuberculosis. We have obtained information on ligands which shall be directly submitted to lead optimization pipeline.
2. Our work has shown that persistent M. tuberculosis is metabolically active, and thus should be susceptible to specific chemotherapy, albeit different from current antibiotics.
3. New assays have been developed for screening drugs which kill persistent M.tuberculosis. These assays can distinguish between drugs such as isoniazid which have little action against persisters, and compounds which are known to have some anti-persister activity such as pyrazinamide.
4. We have identified unique compounds which kill M.tuberculosis including Rifampicin resistant strains. In the current project, we plan to apply our integrated strategy to the drug development pipeline by structural analysis of novel targets, virtual and real screening based identification of leads, new organic synthetic chemistry and functional evaluation in mice.
The outcome of this project is expected to lead to new drugs which will shorten the duration of TB treatment, will improve the treatment of latent TB infection and are effective against multi-drug resistant TB.
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 health sciences infectious diseases RNA viruses HIV
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine pneumology tuberculosis
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy pharmaceutical drugs antibiotics
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy drug resistance multidrug resistance
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy drug resistance antibiotic resistance
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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.
Topic(s)
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.
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.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP6-2004-LIFESCIHEALTH-5
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
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.
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.
Coordinator
BRAUNSCHWEIG
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.