A new 3D system to study human infection in the laboratory p | Figure 1

PedroPharmacist

Pharmacist

A new 3D system to study human infection in the laboratory promises new ways to fight the problematic tuberculosis.

The system employs an electrostatic encapsulation technique to manufacture small spheres, within which human cells are infected with the tuberculosis bacterium, recreating conditions that reflect more closely what occurs in patients than can be obtained with Petri dishes, in which it is only possible to make flat cultures.

For example, the model will allow us to investigate more deeply what happens in the human body as tuberculosis develops, in order to identify new antibiotic treatments and vaccines.

The device was created by a team of infectologists, engineers and bioinformatics experts from the universities of Southampton and College London (UK).

For Professor Paul Elkington, the 3D sphere can be created with an array of collagen, so that it looks like a human lung. This creates an environment that allows specific antibiotics, which are important in treating patients, to kill the infection, which is not the case in other 2D systems. This system will help us accelerate the process of finding treatments and vaccines for human tuberculosis, an infection that kills 1.8 million people a year.

Source: University of Southampton. College London.

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A research aimed at overcoming the problematic issue of resistance to drugs used in the treatment of tuberculosis has been developed by researchers from five institutions, including Fiocruz Minas. The idea is to use bioinformatics to understand what happens to the mutating bacteria that are mutated and to resist the antibiotics used to combat them, and then to identify them, analyze their effects on the patient's body, and think about new forms of treatment for him. According to researcher Douglas Pires (Fiocruz Minas), one of the main problems encountered today in the fight against tuberculosis is the time doctors take to confirm that the drug is not working. Thus, one of our main objectives is to speed up this diagnosis, identifying the mutations responsible for the resistance as soon as possible, so that the treatment can be reassessed and modified, given the characteristics of the bacterium that is causing the disease. Douglas and one other Australian researcher have created an online platform being fed by a database of England with samples of patients from around the world who have developed resistance to these drugs, including Brazilians. This information will be sent to the University of São Paulo (USP) and to the University of Cambridge, where they will be validated by groups participating in the project. Source: Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.

Scientists at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro have concluded that the spread of leprosy can be prevented if the patient's treatment is reconciled with the immunization of the family members of patients with BCG. According to Geraldo Pereira, a researcher at the Laboratory of Cellular Microbiology at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, there was already a scientific knowledge that Mycobacterium leprae expelled through the patient's airway can contaminate people who have close contact with him if there is no adequate treatment, especially if both share a home environment. To develop the work, analyzed blood samples from 16 people who had proximity to patients with Multibacillary leprosy patients treated at the Ambulatório Sousa Araújo, of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. Of this total, 13 participants received booster BCG vaccine simultaneously with initiation of treatment of patients. After six months, the results of the participants' new blood samples showed that in almost all cases their immune response was strengthened. As there is no specific vaccine to combat leprosy, BCG, used in the treatment of tuberculosis, is the best option, since the causative agents of the two diseases are similar. Pereira explains that with this research it is possible for Brazil to take a step forward in combating the disease. Source: Plos Neglected Tropical Diseases.

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