Colaboração com o Instituto CSIR-CDRI Lucknow- Uttar Pradesh- India
Visita técnica ao CSIR-CDRI- Lucknow- Uttar Pradesh- India.
O projeto aprovado pelo CNPq e DBT- India: Deciphering roles of secreted proteases in the host-pathogen interaction of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Implication(s) for novel Drug discovery and vaccine development, partiu de uma iniciativa da equipe de pesquisadores do CSIR-CDRI para a avaliação em modelos animais proteínas recombinantes e cepas de M. tuberculosis KO.
As justificativas do projeto estão descritas a seguir conforme aplicado no projeto:
"The Brazilian group, which is headed by Dr. Ana Paula Junqueira Kipnis and Dr. André Kipnis, has extensive experience and internationally recognition for working with different strategies in the development of new vaccines against Mtb, as well as in the understanding of host-pathogen interactions, having more than 60 published articles in indexed journals. In recent years, they have been focusing on the development of fusion proteins to be used in different vaccine strategies and in the evaluation and prospection of brazilian fauna and flora products to be used as antimicrobials agents.
CSIR- Central Drug Research Institute (CSIR-CDRI) is an indian drug research Institute inaugurated on 1951 aiming to strengthen and advance the field of drug research and development in the country. Today, it has become a unique model for modernized drug research in India – having everything under one roof, from synthesis, screening, development studies, process up-scaling to clinical studies. Unique achievements of the Institute include discovery and development of 12 new drugs, of which, Arteether (for malaria treatment), BESEB (neuroprotective and memory stimulant) and Centchroman (contraceptive method) are currently in market. The institute also transferred more than 130 technologies to pharmaceutical companies, a significant contribution in the metamorphosis of the Indian Industry. So far, more than 10,000 research articles have been published by the Institute in peer-reviewed journals. Obtained more than 350 Indian patents and 90 international patents; and graduated more than 1000 Ph.Ds which have occupied high positions in national and international academic institutions as wells as in biotech and pharmaceutical industries.
The Indian team, which integrates the project, is composed by Dr. Arunava Dasgupta who has deep experience in molecular biology, including the generation of bacterial knockout strains that are essential for the execution of this project. Dr. Kishore K. Srivastava is a well-known specialist in Mtb biology, working mainly with proteases and kinases in relation to the host-pathogen interaction. Dr. Sidharth Chopra works directly with screening of anti-bacterial compounds and evaluation of their in vivo efficacy as well as evaluation of mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance, especially in ESKAPE (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter sp. Species).
The project will then use the expertise of both groups to achieve their goals. It is important to mention that there will be exchange of technologies and experiences for the growth of both groups. The recombinant enzymes are already in the production phase by the two groups and from thereon they can be characterized biochemically and functionally. However, in order to evaluate the real importance of these enzymes for the bacterium and for infection and pathogenesis, it is necessary to generate Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains with knocked-out genes, and this is a technology dominated by the Indian groups, which has works with the deletion of genes in mycobacteria, such as the deleted oppA (DASGUPTA, A etal. 2010), espJ (SINGH, PK et al., 2015), sigF gene of Mycobacterium smegmatis (SINGH, AK et al., 2015)."