Problem/issue
Opportunistic infections are infections which are predominantly affecting patients which do not have a fully functional immune system, either already from birth onwards, or acquired later, e.g. by drugs which downmodulate the immune system. Thus, in addition to the infections everybody will get, these patients also suffer from infections normally defended by a functional immune system. The pathogens involved in these opportunistic infections comprise all sorts of bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites and altogether these are the top killers worldwide.
The immune system is very complex and consists of both cellular and humoral, i.e. liquid, parts, the latter containing a lot of proteins. One part of the immune system is already present a birth, called innate immune system, and another part develops during life, called acquired immune system. The target of this study is an important part of the humoral, innate, immune system, a cascade of proteins, called “complement system”. This is a major and crucial force in defending opportunistic infections.
These infections are increasing, incompletely understood (as hardly unknown 55 years ago, before the advent of immunosuppressive drugs) and pose an enormous threat for all heath systems and cost a lot of money. They are therefore of utmost importance for all societies.
Overall objectives
The overall aim of CORVOS, for COmplement Regulation and Variation in Opportunistic infectionS, was to train 15 widely recruited and highly motivated early stage researchers, ESRs, on one hand and to learn more about the regulations and variations of complement in these infections (work package (WP) 1), decipher evasion mechanisms employed by the pathogens (WP 2), develop new diagnostic tools (WP 3) and inaugurate novel prevention and treatment measures (WP 4) on the other.
Further aims were on one hand to improve the training of the ESRs to increase their scientific knowledge and transferable skills (WP 5) and to award them with a joint or double PhD by two European universities. Communication and dissemination activities (WP 6) aimed to promote CORVOS as an ambitious pan-European initiative of 10 European universities, 3 biomedical companies, 5 research institutes and 2 hospitals. Besides an excellent and comprehensive management of the entire project (WP 7), a very important aim was to keep the output for the future within sustainable actions (WP 8).
