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Establishment of Rapid Diagnostic Tools for Tuberculosis and Trypanosomiasis and Screening of Candidate Compounds for Trypanosomiasis

Infectious Diseases Control

Republic of Zambia

Finished

Establishment of Rapid Diagnostic Tools for Tuberculosis and Trypanosomiasis and Screening of Candidate Compounds for Trypanosomiasis

Speed, Accuracy, and Low Cost Vital to Treating Trypanosomiasis and Tuberculosis

Principal Investigator

- Prof.
  SUZUKI Yasuhiko
  Research Center for Zoonosis Control, Hokkaido University

ODA Recipient Country

Republic of Zambia

Research Institutions in Japan

Hokkaido University / Tottori University / Fujita Health University / Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine

Research Institutions in Counterpart Country

University Teaching Hospital (UTH) / University of Zambia (UNZA)

Adoption fiscal year

FY 2008

Research Period

4 Years

Overview of the Research Project

Preventing spread of infection through fast and accurate diagnosis
Tuberculosis, one of the most serious infectious diseases in Zambia, is a zoonotic disease that is expected to spread because it has developed resistance to existing therapies. Another major disease is malaria, but misdiagnosis of trypanosomiasis and other similar ailments as malaria often leads to death as a consequence of failure to provide appropriate treatment. Early diagnosis and appropriate treatment is essential to preventing the spread of these diseases. For this project, we are seeking to adapt highly sensitive, speedy and low-cost diagnosis systems developed largely in Japan to the diagnosis of tuberculosis and trypanosomiasis, and at the same time develop drugs to treat trypanosomiasis.

Successful development of diagnostic techniques and discovery of many potential therapeutic drugs
Our research led not only to the successful development of speedy techniques for diagnosing tuberculosis and trypanosomiasis that are practical for use at local inspection stations, but also to the synthesis of over 300 candidate substances with potential to become therapeutic drugs, and we are now assessing their effectiveness. We plan to transfer these outcomes to Zambia, and improve its research and development capabilities.

Photo gallery

Introducing examination methods developed in Japan to Zambia

Trypanosome

We are studying Trypanosome prevalent in animals, and sequencing the genes of those likely to infect humans so as to boost the precision of our diagnostic techniques.