Host directed medicine in invasive fungal infection

ongoing

Despite novel treatment options and development of diagnostic tools invasive fungal infections (IFI) are still associated with an unacceptably high mortality and morbidity. Experts believe that a host directed approach is needed to overcome this problem. HDM-FUN proposes a transdisciplinary approach to identify host-pathogen factors (HPFs) needed for host directed medical interventions in IFI and will be the first of its kind. The overall concept is to identify host-pathogen factors in the setting of immunotherapy and prophylaxis that will allow the design for tailored novel therapeutic and preventive host-directed medicine approaches for patients with lethal invasive fungal infection in the intensive care. Specific objectives: 1. To identify host-pathogen factors that correlate with disease, and correlate them with preventive or immunotherapy- based strategies to stratify patients for personalized host-directed treatment options. 2. Two clinical trials of host-directed medicine approaches; an immunotherapy trial in patients with candidemia and a prospective observational trial for prophylaxis in patients with influenza at risk for aspergillosis. 3. To set-up a centrally managed biobank with samples of the patients enrolled in both clinical trials, and to standardize experimental procedures, protocols and centralize analysis. 4. To establish a unique infrastructure aimed to: explore host-directed medicine approaches in IFI, evaluate their impact on patients and health care, translate research efforts to clinical practice by designing point of care tests and teaching medical professionals. HDM-FUN brings together top scientists and clinical researchers to unravel host factors (genetics and transcription), immune modulators (metabolome, microbiome), and host pathogen interactions (genetics, metabolomics, immunology, signalling pathways, phagosome biogenesis, and inflammasome regulation) that determine the susceptibility and outcome of patients with fungal infection.