Triple-D Targets: The UK-Philippines Dengue Diagnostic and Drug Target
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Triple-D Targets: The UK-Philippines Dengue Diagnostic and Drug Targets Research Consortium
IRAS ID
201804
Contact name
Andrew Davidson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bristol
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 2 months, 8 days
Research summary
Dengue is the most important arthropod-borne disease of humans and endemic in the Philippines which has the 4th largest disease burden of all Southeast Asian countries. Dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) epidemics occur at least every 2-3 years in the Philippines. Despite national efforts to reduce the disease burden, cases continue to rise, with over 500,000 clinical cases and 3000 deaths from 2008-2012 which has a major impact, both socially and economically. Dengue virus (DENV) infection produces a wide spectrum of clinical presentations, but the factors contributing to differential disease severity are poorly understood. Although most dengue cases can be managed at home, the lack of a diagnostic test to predict severe disease with haemorrhagic and plasma-leakage complications, forces patients and healthcare providers to seek hospital admissions for “safety purposes”, saturating an already overwhelmed healthcare system. Our overall objective, by adopting an integrated approach, is to correlate disease severity in patients who have well-defined clinical outcomes with virus metagenomic, host transcriptomic and proteomic changes observed in the periphery.
This will involve the analysis of blood samples collected from patients with dengue illness of varying severity in the Philippines. The blood samples have either been retrospectively collected or will be prospectively collected in the Philippines during the project. The Philippine partner has or will obtain ethical approval for all procedures used in the collection process. The samples will then be shipped to the UK and stored before analysis. Any clinical data transferred to the UK partner will be in an anonymised form with no attached patient identifiers.
This study will allow us to identify candidate virological and/or host biomarkers for the development of diagnostic platforms that predict progression to severe dengue disease.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EM/0503
Date of REC Opinion
8 Dec 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion