Tuberculosis Research Program
In 2020, an estimated 10 million people fell ill, and 1.5 million people died from TB worldwide. In addition, TB remains a significant cause of childhood illness and mortality in high burden countries. In 2020, 1.1 million children fell ill with TB globally, and 205,000 child deaths were due to TB. Child and adolescent TB is often overlooked by health providers and can be challenging to diagnose and treat. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) remains a public health crisis and a health security threat. Only about one in three people with drug-resistant TB accessed treatment in 2020.
Of importance to Australia, TB is an enormous and rapidly growing problem in our region, which contains 58% of global TB cases and 56% of multi-drug resistant TB.
While 98% of reported TB cases are in low- and middle-income countries, TB is present in all countries and age groups. An estimated 66 million lives were saved through TB diagnosis and treatment between 2000 and 2020. Our approach to tackling Tuberculosis research is through a range of measures. Through developing new vaccines and drugs, improving our understanding of TB immunology, discovering new biomarkers, and contributing to public policy and practice. As a part of the Centre of Research Excellence in Tuberculosis Control, we have the platform to translate discoveries into more effective tools to control TB.
Understanding disease
As a result, our STOP-TB strategy calls for intensified research into more effective tools to control TB, including entirely new approaches to TB vaccines, TB drugs and tools for the diagnosis of active TB and biomarkers to monitor the response to therapy.
Finding a cure
We are developing vaccines for delivery to the lung to boost immunity against TB. We are also developing subunit vaccines that contain proteins to stimulate protective immunity against different stages of TB infection.
Around 2 million people have latent TB infection, with approximately 5% risk of developing active TB during their lifetime. As such, we are working to discover new biomarkers to distinguish those with active TB. We are also conducting a genome-wide association study to identify genetic variants that contribute to increased susceptibility to TB.
The primary threat to TB control is the emergence of drug-resistant strains of the infection. For the past five years, we have also been working towards developing new drugs that are effective against these increasingly prevalent drug-resistant strains.
Prevention
Recently, the Tuberculosis Research Program has undertaken a novel TB vaccine project, together with University of Sydney Prof Richard Payne, and have developed a method for rapid synthesis of safe vaccines. The method has been demonstrated with a new vaccine for use against TB which has generated a powerful protective immune response in mice (read more here). The group has also collaborated with Prof Jamie Triccas and Dr Claudio Counoupas in developing and testing BCG:CoVac – a BCG-adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine candidate which they have shown to demonstrate complete protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection in mice (read more here). Up next, the Tuberculosis Research Program will work with the Centenary UTS Centre for Inflammation on a TB and COVID co-infection study in mice – defining the impact of chronic lung disease on COVID-19 and developing effective therapies.
Understanding disease
As a result, our STOP-TB strategy calls for intensified research into more effective tools to control TB, including entirely new approaches to TB vaccines, TB drugs and tools for the diagnosis of active TB and biomarkers to monitor the response to therapy.
Finding a cure
We are developing vaccines for delivery to the lung to boost immunity against TB. We are also developing subunit vaccines that contain proteins to stimulate protective immunity against different stages of TB infection.
Around 2 million people have latent TB infection, with approximately 5% risk of developing active TB during their lifetime. As such, we are working to discover new biomarkers to distinguish those with active TB. We are also conducting a genome-wide association study to identify genetic variants that contribute to increased susceptibility to TB.
The primary threat to TB control is the emergence of drug-resistant strains of the infection. For the past five years, we have also been working towards developing new drugs that are effective against these increasingly prevalent drug-resistant strains.
Prevention
Recently, the Tuberculosis Research Program has undertaken a novel TB vaccine project, together with University of Sydney Prof Richard Payne, and have developed a method for rapid synthesis of safe vaccines. The method has been demonstrated with a new vaccine for use against TB which has generated a powerful protective immune response in mice (read more here). The group has also collaborated with Prof Jamie Triccas and Dr Claudio Counoupas in developing and testing BCG:CoVac – a BCG-adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine candidate which they have shown to demonstrate complete protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection in mice (read more here). Up next, the Tuberculosis Research Program will work with the Centenary UTS Centre for Inflammation on a TB and COVID co-infection study in mice – defining the impact of chronic lung disease on COVID-19 and developing effective therapies.
