Page 19 - CIBERES2016-ENG

Infectious Respiratory
Diseases Programme
Coordinator: Antoni Torres
Tuberculosis Line
The strategic programme on tuberculosis (TB) is focussed on:
Prevention: the design of new candidates for vaccination: clinical development of MTBVAC; construction of multivalent live-attenuated vaccines based on three modern families of M. tuberculosis; design of a hyper-attenuated vaccine for the immunocompromised; new strategic therapies for preventing infection and active disease: methods for fast monitoring of the transmission of TB by genome sequencing and species-specific CRPs.
Diagnosis: study of lesions caused by TB obtained by surgical procedures to seek biomarkers better correlating with TB pathology, clinical aspects, multi-resistance to drugs and prognosis; evaluation of new immunological and molecular tests for diagnosis of latent TB infection and disease: development of tests that are useful in low-income countries; integration of genomic and epidemiological strategies.
Treatment: basic research and development of new anti-tuberculosis drugs; evaluation of therapies addressing the host; development of new approaches for studying pathogen-host interactions with new anti-tuberculosis formulations.
Host-Pathogen Interactions Line
The host-pathogen interaction line works on identifying new therapeutic targets based on knowledge of the biological bases of infection for their later exploitation in the development of antimicrobials. To this end it uses multiple pathogen-specific approaches currently in the therapeutic discovery and/or preclinical evaluation phase. This line is having significant results in its three areas:
• Genes of K. pneumoniae, S. aureus, H. influenzae, S. pneumoniae, influenza and Mycobacterium implicated in patho-adaptive evolution during respiratory infection have been identified and/or characterised on the genomic and phenotypic level;
• Strategies in eukaryotic subversion by Mycobacterium, K. pneumoniae, the influenza virus and RSV, and of immunomodulation by pulmonary surfactant have been characterised;
• Progress has been made in the preclinical valuation of pulmonary surfactant proteins, natural polyphenols, aptamers and enzybiotics as antimicrobials, as well as in the optimisation of pharmacological release systems.
In 2016, the work done in this line generated 36 scientific publications, 2 patents, and gave rise to the defence of 7 doctoral theses.
Pneumonia Line
The “Pneumocoper” project is the project of the Pneumonia Line Programme for the 2016-2018 period. This project includes the following 9 sub-programmes:
• WP1-Pneumonia caused by MDR pathogens. Rosario Menéndez
• WP2-Community-acquired Pneumonia in non neutropenic oncological patients. Maria Luisa Pedro-Botet
• WP3-S. Pneumoniae from bench to bedside. Carmen Ardanuy
• WP4-Rapid microbiological tests to improve the management of respiratory infections. Emilio Bouza
• WP5-Treatment of pneumonia:reviewing the current Guidelines, amd what´s in the pipe line.Jordi Rello
• WP6-Prevention of Hospital-acquired pneumonia. Antoni Torres
• WP7-Animal models of pneumonia. Gian Luigi li Bassi
RES
Scientific Programmes 19