The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health has awarded grants to 10 projects to enhance diagnostic tools for congenital and adult syphilis—conditions currently diagnosed with a battery of tests, each with limited accuracy. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that cases of adult syphilis and congenital syphilis increased by 80% and 183%, respectively, between 2018 and 2022—a crisis that prompted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to create a national task force to reply to the epidemic.
Antibiotics against syphilis are effective, but outdated tests make it very difficult to be sure that victims are appropriately diagnosed and treated comprehensively. Advanced diagnostics could streamline syphilis treatment and likewise improve our ability to the effectiveness of possible syphilis vaccines and other prevention methods.”
Jeanne M. Marrazzo, MD, MPH, NIAID Director
Syphilis is a standard sexually transmitted infection brought on by the bacteria. It will probably cause neurological and organ damage in adults, in addition to congenital abnormalities, stillbirths, and neonatal deaths. The CDC reports that the incidence of syphilis in the US has been increasing since 2000, marked by a pointy increase in cases since 2019 and a rising variety of medically underserved populations.
The present syphilis testing algorithm requires not less than two antibody-based tests based on decades-old technology. These tests cannot reliably distinguish between antibodies from an energetic or a healed syphilis infection. Nor can they reliably confirm whether antibiotic treatment has successfully cleared the bacteria from the body. Fortunately, there are modern molecular techniques similar to nucleic acid Amplification systems and platforms that detect fragments of a pathogen are actually utilized in other infectious diseases and might be adapted for the diagnosis of syphilis.
The brand new NIAID grants will explore a spread of immunological and diagnostic concepts, including basic research to enhance the understanding of the immune response of infants to syphilis, novel tests to discover different parts of the genome material in infants and adults, measurements of Antibiotic resistance in and testing platforms that might be used at the purpose of care relatively than in an external laboratory. The whole grant of $2.4 million can be distributed among the many recipients and can include the next awards:
Magic Lifescience, Inc., Mountain View, California
Project title: Development of a novel molecular diagnostic syphilis test for a point-of-care multiplex genital ulcer panel test on giant magnetoresistive biosensors
Principal Investigator: Elaine Ng, Ph.D. (Early Stage Investigator)
Authorization: 1 R21 AI185972-01
Research at Nationwide Kid’s, Columbus, Ohio
Project title: Investigation of the immune responses of infants for the diagnosis of congenital syphilis infection
Principal Investigator: Masako Shimamura, MD
Authorization: 1 R21 AI186003-01
University of California, San Francisco
Project title: Multi-omic approaches to discover latest biomarkers for the diagnosis of syphilis in pregnancy and the assessment of treatment success
Principal Investigator: Stephanie Gaw, MD, Ph.D.
Authorization: 1 R21AI186006-01
University of Texas at Austin
Project title: A triadic approach to improved diagnosis of maternal and congenital syphilis
Principal Investigator: Sanchita Bhadra, Ph.D. (early stage investigator) with Randolph Hubach, Ph.D., MPH (Purdue University)
Authorization: 1 R21 AI185965-01
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas
Project title: Preanalytical aspects influencing molecular testing for congenital syphilis
Principal Investigators: Jeffrey Sorelle, MD with Emily Adhikari, MD
Authorization: 1 R21 AI185968-01
University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Project title: Development of a direct diagnostic test for infectious and congenital syphilis
Principal Investigator: Caroline Cameron, Ph.D.
Authorization: 1 R21 AI186005-01
University of Washington, Seattle
Project title: Fast and highly sensitive aptamer-based detection technologies for
Principal Investigator: Stephen Salipante, MD, Ph.D.
Authorization: 1 R21 AI184484-01
University of Washington, Seattle
Project title: Rapid point-of-care detection of resistance to macrolides and tetracyclines by multiplex loop-mediated amplification (LAMP)
Principal Investigator: Joshua Lieberman, MD, Ph.D. (Early Stage Investigator)
Authorization: 1 R21 AI184749-01
University of Washington, Seattle
Project title: Sensitive genome reconstruction by tiling amplicon sequencing
Principal Investigator: Alexander Greninger, MD, Ph.D., MS, M.Phil.
Authorization: 1 R21 AI185726-01
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg
Project title: Released peptidoglycan fragments are a biomarker for early stages of syphilis
Principal Investigator: Brandon Jutras, Ph.D.
Authorization: 1 R21 AI185998-01
