Charalampos Attipa, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Project: The NCEMA study: Neutrophils in Cerebral Malaria.
Every year half of the world’s population is at risk of getting malaria, caused by the Plasmodium parasite, and almost half a million people die; mostly children in sub-Saharan Africa.
Some infected children are at a higher risk of death since malaria can damage their brains as part of a severe complication called cerebral malaria (CM). Neutrophils are one of the first lines of defence against fighting infections by damaging cells, yet their involvement during CM is not entirely understood.
We hypothesise that neutrophils interact with Plasmodium affecting the blood vessels of the brain and initiate or promote the progression to CM. We aim to perform a detailed analysis of the role of neutrophils in CM, using prospectively collected blood from children with CM, archival post-mortem brain tissue, blood vessel cell cultures and a mouse model. With the exception of the mouse model our project will be based in Malawi, a country endemic for malaria.
Our findings will allow us to understand if neutrophils cause damage to the brain blood vessels leading to CM. This could provide the basis of a search for novel prevention and treatment strategies that can potentially decrease the high rates of death of this disease.
ORCID 0000-0001-6039-6586
Sepeedeh Saleh, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Participatory Approaches in Mpemba for Developing Clean Air interventions (PAMODZI).
Air pollution is a major health risk worldwide, particularly in countries such as Malawi where smoke is widespread, both indoors and outside, and populations remain reliant on polluting fuels for cooking and heating.Research so far, largely using ‘improved cookstoves’, has failed to demonstrate the hoped-for health improvements in lung health.
This study brings together the priorities of the research team with those of the communities which the research aims to benefit, from the start.
I will use participant observation to explore the role of smoke in the context of a Malawian village, also measuring individuals’ smoke exposures as they go about their daily lives. Working with community members we will then use this information to develop a set of acceptable, context-appropriate clean air interventions. Finally, I will assess the effectiveness of these interventions in reducing smoke exposure through a small village-based trial.
The study will build on the knowledge of members of the village, raising awareness of the issues and including participants in developing solutions from the start. This will assist in developing an effective, sustainable clean air intervention, as well as Demonstrating a more engaged approach to Global Health research.
ORCID 0000-0003-1944-1677
Michael Abouyannis, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Project: Defining the pathophysiology of snakebite induced local tissue damage and evaluating tolerance of a repurposed orally administered venom inhibitor.
Snakebite is an important problem in tropical parts of the world, such as sub-Saharan Africa. However, the importance of this condition has been under-recognised until recently.Victims of snakebite are often children or young adults and the condition can devastate families by causing life changing disability or death.
By visiting homes in a rural area of Kenya and using a questionnaire, we will be able to better understand how often snakebite is occurring here. By closely monitoring any cases of snake that present to hospital, we will be able to better understand the type of disease people have in this region (the disease can vary significantly in different regions due to differences in snake species).
We will compare the body’s immune responses, between people with snakebite and people with burns; to see if snakebite causes a particular type of immune response over and above that caused by skin damage alone. This immune response may be causing the skin damage that is often seen after a snakebite.
Many snake venoms contain “SVMP” toxins. These toxins need zinc in order to function. SVMPs can damage the lining of blood vessels and interfere with normal blood clotting, and this can lead to bleeding. In mice, a drug that is normally given for heavy metal poisoning, has been shown to prevent death from snake envenoming. We plan to give this drug (called DMPS), to a small number of healthy people in Kenya, in order to understand its safety, and to decide what dose is best to give.
ORCID 0000-0003-4856-4334
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