Researchers from Telethon Kids Institute are joining forces with international experts in acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) to transform the diagnosis of these diseases thanks to an $US8 million grant from the Leducq Foundation.

Led from the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, the Acute Rheumatic Fever Diagnosis Collaborative (ARC) Network will look to identify and validate biomarkers for ARF, which will then play a critical role in the development of a highly sensitive diagnostic test providing fast-tracked results.

According to Dr Timothy Barnett, Head of the Strep A Pathogenesis and Diagnostics team at the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, based at Telethon Kids Institute, preventing ARF and RHD is especially challenging as the disease is very difficult to diagnose.
“Despite the high burden of cases in most low and middle-income countries, as well as right here in Australia amongst our remote Aboriginal communities, symptoms of ARF can overlap with other common childhood illnesses. Accurate diagnosis of ARF requires medical expertise and laboratory tests that are not always available in the affected populations,” said Dr Barnett.

“The availability of a diagnostic test suitable for use in remote settings would also prevent some patients receiving unnecessary, painful antibiotic injections as a result of misdiagnosis.

“Over the next five years, we will be using a two-pronged approach – recruiting ARF patients in low- and middle-income countries across four continents, and then using cutting- edge science to identify and validate biomarkers that will serve as a basis for the world’s first sensitive and specific diagnostic test for ARF,” concluded Dr Barnett.
In Western Australia, contributions to the global effort will be led by international experts in Strep A and RHD, including Dr Barnett, Telethon Kids Institute Director Professor Jonathan Carapetis, END RHD Program Head Associate Professor Asha Bowen, and Head of Systems Vaccinology, Professor Tobias Kollmann.
Andrea Beaton, MD, pediatric cardiologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, is the lead researcher for this ground-breaking project.

Reference: https://infectiousdiseases.telethonkids.org.au/news--events/