A new €2.75 million European Union-funded research project will test a new diagnostic technology in 1,000 children in Burkina Faso and Ghana, aiming to help clinicians distinguish the causes of fever and reduce delays in appropriate treatment.
The PATHFINDER project, led by Imperial College London and supported by Global Health EDCTP3 and its members, will evaluate the Lacewing diagnostic platform in clinical settings, moving the technology beyond proof-of-concept studies towards potential use in frontline healthcare.
The platform, developed by ProtonDx in collaboration with Imperial researchers, analyses patterns in patients’ gene-expression responses to identify the likely cause of an infection. It is designed to help healthcare workers distinguish between malaria, bacterial and viral infections, as well as tuberculosis, when assessing children with fever.
Fever is among the most common reasons children are brought to healthcare facilities across Africa, but identifying the infection responsible can be difficult. This uncertainty can delay treatment and contribute to the unnecessary use of medicines, including antibiotics.
Professor Aubrey Cunnington, PATHFINDER’s principal investigator from Imperial College London’s Department of Infectious Disease, said the project aimed to advance diagnostic technology that could support faster and more accurate clinical decisions, improve patient outcomes and reduce inappropriate antibiotic use.
The clinical evaluation will involve children presenting with febrile illness in Burkina Faso and Ghana, with scientific leadership in Burkina Faso provided by Dr François Kiemde of the Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro.
Beyond testing the platform’s diagnostic performance, the six-partner consortium will assess what would be needed to introduce the technology into African health systems. Its work will examine usability, regulatory approval pathways, opportunities for local manufacturing, sustainable financing and potential effects on patient care and public health.
The initiative also seeks to strengthen African-led research and innovation while training a new generation of researchers in diagnostic technologies.
PATHFINDER builds on work undertaken through the National Institute for Health and Care Research-funded Global Health Research Group on Digital Diagnostics for African Health Systems, led by Cunnington and Professor Halidou Tinto, director of the Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro.
That programme has supported 10 African PhD fellows in developing and evaluating diagnostic platforms, alongside clinical studies and engagement with health systems, communities and other stakeholders.
The wider PATHFINDER consortium includes researchers from Imperial College London, ProtonDx, the University of Ghana, Amsterdam University Medical Centres and the MRC Unit The Gambia at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
By combining clinical testing with research into implementation and affordability, the project aims to establish whether rapid, gene-expression-based diagnostics can become a practical tool for managing childhood fever and strengthening infectious disease care in African health facilities.
Article by Jed Mwangi
Photo courtesy:Imperial College London
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