Projects

Arthropod vectors and vector-borne diseases are frequently zoonotic infections and although their most significant clinical effects are often on the human population, the main infection sources are dependent on vectors, animal reservoirs and environmental factors. Hence, their surveillance and control require efficient and appropriately standardised methods, integrated knowledge and awareness among researchers, academic educators and policy-makers as well as well-trained young scientists. EurNegVec aims to promote all of these values and apply them in the field of vectors (ticks, mosquitoes, sandflies, midges and fleas) and vector-borne pathogens (viruses, bacteria, protozoa and nematodes). The main objectives are to endorse exchange of knowledge and methodologies, improve higher education, facilitate training of next generation experts, improve the European and national policies, produce innovation and disseminate the related scientific information, all these under the framework of the One Health paradigm.

The principal goal of the project is to verify if, and to what extent, anthropic impact and climatic changes affect the risk of vector borne diseases transmission. The project aims to develop an epidemiological model where the environment is modeled on both italian and serbian characteristics, the wild animal host is the red fox, and the pathogens cause vector-borne diseases. The diseases considered are transmitted by mosquitos (Dirofilaria immitis), by ticks (Babesia sp. Ehrlichia sp., Anaplasma phagocitophylum), and by sandflies (Leishmania infantum). The pathogens to be studied were chosen because they are very different from the phylogenetic and biological points of view and in their ecological needs. In this way it will be possible to verify the large number of mechanisms through which environmental changes can affect the spread of pathogens.

Identification of ticks and tick-borne diseases, as a growing problem in last decades, coincides with the increase of anthropogenic influence on biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems. As a result of direct and indirect anthropogenic impact, the migration of these pathogens to new areas is enabled. Wild canids are important hosts of ixodid ticks and recently they have been recognized as potential reservoirs of several tick-borne pathogens of zoonotic and domestic animals importance. The species like red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and golden jackals (Canis aureus) also represent an important source of infections for domestic animals and humans, mostly due to their close proximity to human settlements and frequent exposure to different vector species. Currently, these populations are both still rapidly growing in urban areas and spreading their ranges toward Central and Eastern Europe increasing the risk of human and animal exposure to pathogens. However, many aspects of the epidemiology of tick-borne diseases in wild canids, such as host range, tick range and their geographical distribution are still poorly understood.

Project collaborators: Dr. Aleksandra Nikolić, Dr. Branko Bobić, Dr. Tijana Štajner, Dr. Ivana Klun, Dr. Jelena Srbljanović, Dr. Vitomir Đokić, Dr. Vladimir Ivović, Dr. Marija Vujanić, Dr. Ksenija Slavić, Dr. Irena Rajnpreht, Dr. Aleksandra Uzelac, Vladimir Ćirković, Milena Stopić, Dr. Neda Bauman, Olivera Lijeskić

The aim of this multidisciplinary project, which integrates basic and applied research on infections caused by leading Apicomplexa pathogens, is to improve the control of toxoplasmosis and malaria by improving therapeutic options and developing strategies for the prevention of infection, which will contribute to the improvement of control both at the clinical level and at the level of public health. By mobilizing a critical mass of human resources (17 PhDs, including two foreign scientists who are leading in their fields of expertise, and 7 PhD students) and material resources (8 academic institutions, with which significant equipment was acquired for the project mainly in the last few years), the project will carry out a significant volume of research, the expected results of which are numerous and diverse and include the range from academic (scientific papers and doctoral theses), results directly applicable in the clinic as well as in the field of public health, to the potential for the development of new drugs. The scientific importance of the planned results lies in the contribution to the knowledge of the pathogenesis of malaria and toxoplasmosis. Basic research on the metabolic processes and transport molecules involved in these infections contributes to the understanding of the complex relationship established between the parasite and the host, and indicates potential sites of action of future drugs. The development of new transgenic lines as well as their characterization will increase the arsenal of tools available for the identification of further therapeutics. The synthesis of new active substances and the eventual identification of those with activity against P. falciparum and T. gondii will represent in itself a contribution to the repertoire of chemotherapeutics, with enormous development potential.

Applied research has immediate clinical significance. The introduction of new diagnostic methods, such as molecular diagnostics of malaria, will represent a contribution to the clinical care of these patients in Serbia. Also, in the same sense, knowledge of the genetic variability of T. gondii and P. falciparum strains that are isolated in Serbia will be useful because it will contribute to treatment with a more adequate choice of drugs, while it will also have a wider significance because they contribute to knowledge of the molecular map of these organisms at the level of the region, Europe and the world. At the end, based on the knowledge of the epidemiological parameters of toxoplasmosis in Serbia, including local risk factors, and insight into the incidence of congenital toxoplasmosis in Serbia, as a result of the project, a strategy of the national prevention program as well as a Good Practice Guide for the clinical management of toxoplasmosis will be developed. The obtained epizootiological data will indicate ways to reduce animal reservoirs of toxoplasmosis. In addition to the aforementioned, the expected results of the project include seven planned doctoral dissertations, the number of which indicates the size of the scope of the research, as well as the role that the applicant and the entire research team of the project play in the education of young researchers.