Objective
"Fever is the leading reason to seek healthcare globally, with over 1 billion cases of febrile illness occurring in children annually. The vast majority of infections are uncomplicated and self-limited and can be treated conservatively. A few (<1%) are life-threatening but are often challenging to identify early in the course of illness. Our project challenges the current status quo and inefficiencies of triaging practices. We propose to develop and validate a rapid triaging tool to determine, objectively, quantitatively and with high precision those patients at risk of dying, so as to prioritize their care.
The breakthrough solution lies in the ENDOTHELIUM, a newly recognized in vivo biosensor, which plays a critical role in our defense against pathogens. Endothelial cell activation and subsequent loss of integrity is a common pathway of injury in several life-threatening infections, including sepsis, malaria, or even COVID-19. Measuring specific mediators of this pathway (sTREM-1, Ang2, etc.) at first clinical presentation can reliably identify individuals at risk of dying, irrespective of the disease causing the fever, and more robustly than previously known predictors such as clinical algorithms or ""classic"" biomarkers. Importantly, these pathways are also ""druggable"", thus allowing the testing or re-purposing of specific interventions to improve outcome.
We will design and produce a RTT (glucometer-like) that quantitatively measures the two markers with best predictive performance (sTREM-1 and Ang2). We will then incorporate it into 2 clinical trials (to be done in Mozambique, Gabon and Ethiopia) to 1) verify the improved performance of the proposed PoC RTT in risk-stratifying and predicting mortality among paediatric patients when compared to standard of care, and 2) test whether a specific intervention (nutritional supplementation of L-Citrulline), guided by biomarker results, improves (vs. placebo) long-term outcomes and survival after hospital discharge.
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Fields of science
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesinfectious diseasesmalaria
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensorsbiosensors
- social sciencessociologydemographymortality
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesinfectious diseasesRNA virusescoronaviruses
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-AG - HORIZON Action Grant Budget-BasedCoordinator
08036 Barcelona
Spain
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Participants (8)
72074 Tuebingen
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08193 Bellaterra
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
1929 Vila Da Manhica Maputo
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118 Lambaréné
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08014 Barcelona
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
00165 Roma
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08193 Cerdanyola Del Valles
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08290 Cerdanyola Del Valles (Barcelona)
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Partners (3)
M5G2C4 Toronto
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WC1E 7HT London
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WC2A 2AE London
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