NIH Awards Will Support Innovation in Syphilis Diagnostics
Summary
Initiative to Simplify Testing Process for an Accelerated Public Health ResponseThe National Institutes of Healths National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has awarded grants for 10 projects to improve diagnostic tools for congenital and adult syphilisconditions currently diagnosed with a sequence of tests, each with limited precision. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that adult and congenital syphilis cases increased by 80% and 183% respectively between 2018 and 2022a crisis that prompted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a national taskforce to respond to the epidemic.Syphilis antibiotics work, but antiquated testing makes it very difficult to ensure that people are appropriately diagnosed and fully treated, said NIAID Director Jeanne M. Marrazzo, M.D., M.P.H. Fortunately, modern molecular techniques, such as nucleic acid amplification systems and platforms which detect fragments of a pathogen, are now in use for other infectious diseases and could be adapted for diagnosing syphilis.The new NIAID grants explore a range of immunologic and diagnostic concepts, including basic research to improve understanding of infant immune responses to syphilis, novel tests to identify different parts of T. pallidum genomic material in infants and adults, measures of antibiotic resistance in T. pallidum strains, and testing platforms that are feasible to use at the point of care rather than an off-site laboratory. With a cumulative $2.4 million in funding distributed across recipients, the awards are as follows:Magic Lifescience, Inc., Mountain View, California Project title: Development of a novel syphilis molecular diagnostic assay for a point-of-care multiplexed genital ulcer panel test on giant magnetoresistive biosensors Principal investigator: Elaine Ng, Ph.D. (early-stage investigator) Grant: 1 R21 AI185972-01Research at Nationwide Childrens, Columbus, Ohio Project title: Interrogating infant immune responses for diagnosis of congenital syphilis infectionPrincipal investigator: Masako Shimamura, M.D. (Purdue University)Grant: 1 R21 AI185965-01University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas Project title: Pre-analytic factors affecting molecular tests for congenital syphilis Principal investigator: Jeffrey Sorelle, M.D.