News & Events
News & Events
Launching of the European TB-VIR research network:
2008-09-11
The TB-VIR project (“Study of the genetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis W-Beijing: Differential virulence and host immune responses") was officially launched at the beginning of May in Shanghai (China). TB-VIR is a cooperative research project coordinated by Dr Olivier Neyrolles, head of a new team at the Institute of pharmacology and structural biology (IPBS - Unite mixte CNRS/Universite Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France) in the “Molecular Mechanisms of Mycobacterial Infections” Department directed by Dr Mamadou Daffe. It has been granted a budget of three million euros over three years by the European Commission in the context of the 7th PCRDT (Health Priority). This consortium comprises eminent tuberculosis specialists working in internationally renowned institutions, half in Asia (China, Korea), and half in Europe (France, Germany and Spain).
TB-VIR is designed to provide a better understanding of the correlations between the genetic diversity of a particularly virulent strain of tuberculosis, M. tuberculosis W-Beijing, and the responses, with varying degrees of success, of the immune defences of people infected by this strain. The W-Beijing strain is present in Europe and in Asia and is the predominant strain of tuberculosis all over the world, probably because of the genetic advantages and specific factors of virulence and modulation of the host’s immune response. Studies have shown that this strain is responsible for 80 to 90% of cases in China where the mean prevalence of tuberculosis is 74 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, and about 27 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the Shanghai region. The W-Beijing strain is also associated with many cases of antibiotic resistance. All of these factors justify this international and concerted effort to more clearly define this strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
As a result of the knowledge generated by this network cooperation, members of the TB-VIR consortium hope to improve our understanding of the epidemiological success of this particular strain of tuberculosis. These results should allow the development of new strategies of control and more appropriate and more rapid diagnostic and prognostic tools for the patient’s ultimate benefit. Furthermore, the information collected will be integrated into a free access database for the international scientific community. This database will give access, in particular, to data concerning gene expression or differential regulation in response to the various clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the bacterial genes required to infect human macrophages.
The key to the success of this programme - composed of academic partners sometimes working at opposite ends of the world, but also European small and medium-sized enterprises - will also be based on professional management of the consortium. This task has been confided to the Inserm-Transfert Unit on international research projects on infectious diseases, headed by Dr Jerome Weinbach, which is experienced in this type of international projects.
The worldwide tuberculosis epidemic takes 1.5 million victims each year and is growing in certain parts of the world, particularly in developing countries. More than one third of the inhabitants of the planet present latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Environmental factors, but also the virulence and the load of bacterial strain present and the genetic factors of infected individuals cause 10 to 15% of these subjects to develop the disease. Tuberculosis is one of the major targets identified in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), designed to stop or reduce the incidence of major diseases by 2015. This epidemic can be stopped.
The TB-VIR consortium is coordinated by the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) [French national centre of scientific research] and comprises the Institut Pasteur, Inserm-Transfert and the biotechnology company IntegraGen S.A. (France), the University of Saragossa (Spain), Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology and GATC Biotech (Germany), the Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the University of Fudan and Ruijin hospital (Shanghai, China), and the Institut Pasteur of Korea (Seoul).
TB-VIR is designed to provide a better understanding of the correlations between the genetic diversity of a particularly virulent strain of tuberculosis, M. tuberculosis W-Beijing, and the responses, with varying degrees of success, of the immune defences of people infected by this strain. The W-Beijing strain is present in Europe and in Asia and is the predominant strain of tuberculosis all over the world, probably because of the genetic advantages and specific factors of virulence and modulation of the host’s immune response. Studies have shown that this strain is responsible for 80 to 90% of cases in China where the mean prevalence of tuberculosis is 74 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, and about 27 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the Shanghai region. The W-Beijing strain is also associated with many cases of antibiotic resistance. All of these factors justify this international and concerted effort to more clearly define this strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
As a result of the knowledge generated by this network cooperation, members of the TB-VIR consortium hope to improve our understanding of the epidemiological success of this particular strain of tuberculosis. These results should allow the development of new strategies of control and more appropriate and more rapid diagnostic and prognostic tools for the patient’s ultimate benefit. Furthermore, the information collected will be integrated into a free access database for the international scientific community. This database will give access, in particular, to data concerning gene expression or differential regulation in response to the various clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the bacterial genes required to infect human macrophages.
The key to the success of this programme - composed of academic partners sometimes working at opposite ends of the world, but also European small and medium-sized enterprises - will also be based on professional management of the consortium. This task has been confided to the Inserm-Transfert Unit on international research projects on infectious diseases, headed by Dr Jerome Weinbach, which is experienced in this type of international projects.
The worldwide tuberculosis epidemic takes 1.5 million victims each year and is growing in certain parts of the world, particularly in developing countries. More than one third of the inhabitants of the planet present latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Environmental factors, but also the virulence and the load of bacterial strain present and the genetic factors of infected individuals cause 10 to 15% of these subjects to develop the disease. Tuberculosis is one of the major targets identified in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), designed to stop or reduce the incidence of major diseases by 2015. This epidemic can be stopped.
The TB-VIR consortium is coordinated by the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) [French national centre of scientific research] and comprises the Institut Pasteur, Inserm-Transfert and the biotechnology company IntegraGen S.A. (France), the University of Saragossa (Spain), Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology and GATC Biotech (Germany), the Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the University of Fudan and Ruijin hospital (Shanghai, China), and the Institut Pasteur of Korea (Seoul).