Wednesday, December 31, 2025 12/31/2025

PROgression of Tuberculosis infECTion in young children living with and without HIV: the PROTECT study

Award Number: R01AI175312
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 04/01/2023
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 03/31/2028

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PROgression of Tuberculosis infECTion in young children living with and without HIV: the PROTECT study - PROJECT SUMMARY The vast majority of child tuberculosis (TB) deaths occur in children <5 years old, highlighting the importance of identifying young children at high risk of developing TB and initiating preventive treatment. However, current tests for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection have poor predictive value for TB progression. To make progress toward biomarker-targeted TB preventive therapy in young children, there is an urgent need to identify novel host markers that reflect the unique pathogenesis of childhood TB, can be detected earlier in the course of disease progression and can be more easily translated to a point-of-care assay. The overall objective of the proposed project is to identify biomarker signatures among young children that meet the World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended minimum accuracy targets for a test of TB progression. We hypothesize that a subset of host biomarkers of childhood TB disease that reflect unsuccessful immune control of Mtb infection will have the best performance for early prediction of TB disease progression in young children. To examine our hypothesis, we propose to leverage 1) biorepositories that provide access to banked samples from children with presumptive TB and healthy children with and without TB exposure and Mtb infection (Uganda, South Africa, the Gambia); 2) biorepositories that provide serial samples from young children followed for 12 months or more for incident TB disease (Uganda, South Africa, Vietnam); and 3) state-of-the-art platforms and bioinformatic pipelines for multi-omics biomarker discovery. In Aim 1, we will measure and compare biomarker levels (host cell-free RNA, proteins, metabolites and antibodies to Mtb antigens) in symptomatic children with presumptive TB and healthy children to identify candidate host biomarkers that differentiate childhood TB disease, differentiate Mtb infection, overlap between TB disease and Mtb infection, and segregate Mtb infection into multiple sub-groups. In Aim 2, we will use pathway analysis, in vitro human models and in vivo mouse models to prioritize candidate host biomarkers that are functionally linked to immune control of Mtb infection. In Aim 3, we will derive biosignatures consisting of the prioritized candidate host biomarker(s) and evaluate their accuracy for predicting TB progression overall and among children living with HIV in independent training and test sets. Completion of these aims will result in identification of promising biosignatures that can be further validated in large-scale field studies and translated into point-of-care tests for predicting progression of childhood TB.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = -$43,645 )
2026	2025	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE	160 ALDRICH HALL	IRVINE	CA	92697	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	001	3	12/8/2025	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	-$41,814
2026	2025	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE	160 ALDRICH HALL	IRVINE	CA	92697	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	3	12/8/2025	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	-$1,831
														Subtotal = -$43,645

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $1,104,683 )
2025	2025	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE	160 ALDRICH HALL	IRVINE	CA	92697	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	002	3	9/3/2025	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$41,814
2025	2025	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE	160 ALDRICH HALL	IRVINE	CA	92697	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	001	3	9/3/2025	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$1,831
2025	2025	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE	160 ALDRICH HALL	IRVINE	CA	92697	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	3	8/28/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$1,061,038
														Subtotal = $1,104,683

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $1,025,117 )
2024	2024	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE	160 ALDRICH HALL	IRVINE	CA	92697	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	2	4/23/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$1,025,117
														Subtotal = $1,025,117

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $1,105,532 )
2023	2023	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE	160 ALDRICH HALL	IRVINE	CA	92697	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	1	3/28/2023	NEW	$1,105,532
														Subtotal = $1,105,532

Grand Total All Awards = $3,191,687

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PROgression of Tuberculosis infECTion in young children living with and without HIV: the PROTECT study

Award Number: R01AI175312

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 04/01/2023

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 03/31/2028

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