Tuberculosis

The A5414 study will evaluate whether treatment for drug-susceptible pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) can be tailored according to a participant's risk of an unfavorable outcome. Participants will be assigned to lower-risk or higher-risk groups using baseline characteristics and then randomized within each group to receive either standard TB treatment or an investigational rifapentine- and moxifloxacin-containing regimen. The study will evaluate whether shorter treatment durations may be used in lower-risk participants and whether the investigational regimen may improve outcomes in higher-risk participants. Safety and tolerability will also be evaluated.

This study aims to find the proposed dose of Rifapentine (RPT) taken once daily with Isoniazid (INH) for 28 days to prevent tuberculosis (TB). The study will take place at multiple locations and children under 13 years old will be divided into two groups: one group will include children without HIV, and the other group will include children with HIV who are on antiretroviral treatment. Up to 144 children will participate, and participants in each group will be followed for 24 weeks.

Background: \- Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that affects numerous people worldwide. Researchers are interested in actively recruiting individuals with TB for research and treatment studies. Objectives: \- To collect blood and other samples to study the natural history of tuberculosis. Eligibility: \- Individuals 2 years of age and older who have either active or latent tuberculosis. Design: * Latent TB patients: Participants will have a single study visit with a physical examination and medical history, and will provide blood samples for testing. * Active TB patients: Participants will have an initial visit with a physical examination and medical history, and will provide blood samples for testing. Participants will also provide sputum samples if required, and may have an optional skin punch biopsy to collect a sample of skin tissue for study. * Treatment for active TB will be provided as part of this protocol. * Active TB participants may be asked to return for study visits every 1-2 months while receiving treatment.

The study design will be a randomized controlled trial. The data will be collected from Gulab Devi Teaching Hospital, Lahore. 34 kids aged 8 to 14 years will be randomly assigned either to an experimental group or a control group. The intervention group includes the active Cycle of Breathing technique with balloon-blowing therapy for 3 days. The control group includes the active cycle of breathing technique. Sputum secretion will be measured by 'sputum measurement cups." Dyspnea will be measured by the "Modified Borg dyspne Scale," and functional capacity will be measured by the "6-Minute Walk Test." Data will be analyzed through SPSS version 25.0.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a significant infectious disease worldwide, with millions of people infected and major impact on mortality and public health. TB-SPECTRUM project will conduct a clinical study to characterize better clinically, microbiologically, and immunologically the spectrum of TB across the different stages of infection, including incipient and asymptomatic/subclinical TB, active disease, and post treatment phases. Passive and active case-finding (ACF) clinical approaches will be implemented, recruiting TB patients through public and private healthcare facilities and targeted community outreach, as well as their close contacts. This approach will allow the study of biomarker profiles associated with infection risk, disease progression and response to treatment. The specific objectives of the study will be: * To unravel immune mechanisms underlying the TB spectrum through a multidisciplinary approach. * To perform a clinical study (passive and ACF) for recruiting patients and their contacts for the enrolment of incipient/subclinical TB forms and the subsequent immune characterization and management. * To characterize host systemic and local immune responses on different TB immune states (with special focus on incipient, subclinical and cured TB) to better understand host-pathogen interactions and the established cellular/humoral immune mechanisms. * To stratify host immunity according to patient's clinical strain characterization and disease severity. * To develop and evaluate innovative tools for better management of all phases of the TB spectrum.

While drug-susceptible tuberculosis (TB) disease in children currently requires four to six months of treatment, most children may be able to be cured with a shorter treatment of more powerful drugs. Shorter treatment may be easier for children to tolerate and finish as well as ease caregiver strain from managing treatment side effects and supporting children over many months. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate if a 2-month regimen (including isoniazid (H), rifapentine (P), pyrazinamide (Z) and moxifloxacin (M)) is as safe and effective as a 4- to 6-month regimen (isoniazid, rifampicin (R), pyrazinamide, ethambutol (E)) in curing drug-susceptible TB disease in children under 10 years old. The study is also evaluating the safety of the HPZM in children with and without HIV.

As part of the ongoing efforts within the Rapid Research in Diagnostics Development for TB Network (R2D2 TB Network) study, the Candidate Clinical Correlate as Prognostic Outcome for TB (C3PO) study serves as a supplement aimed at evaluating predictors and novel biomarkers of recurrent TB among TB survivors. Current tools for predicting TB recurrence risk are suboptimal, limiting the ability to assess new TB treatment regimens effectively. Identifying accurate sputum- or blood-based biomarkers for recurrence risk could significantly improve the efficiency and informativeness of Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials.

Rationale: To halt the global tuberculosis (TB) crisis, and particular the ongoing threat of drug-resistant TB (DR-TB), it is essential to reduce transmission. This could be done by shortening the period that patients with pulmonary TB secrete viable bacilli, and are therefore contagious to others, by prompt initiation of effective treatment. Pulmonary administration of anti-TB drugs might play an important role since it yields higher local concentrations and lower systemic concentrations compared to systemic (oral or parenteral) administration. Isoniazid (INH) has very high bactericidal activity and is one of the most effective drugs in the treatment of TB. Although the occurrence of mutations leading to resistance to INH at systemic concentrations has hindered the use of this drug, INH can still be effective when administered in a high concentration at the site of infection even in case of drug resistance. This cannot easily be achieved by oral dosing because of the associated risk of systemic toxicity. However, pulmonary administration of INH may be a solution. The concept of inhalable antimicrobials is not new; for example it is a well-established therapy for the treatment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in cystic fibrosis patients. INH has been used by inhalation before in patients with TB but only up to a dose of 200 mg/day. In this protocol, a local tolerability and pharmacokinetic study of higher doses of INH inhalations will be performed by wet nebulization in patients with TB. The hypothesis is that single doses up to 1200 mg INH are safe. Future studies will demonstrate that high intrapulmonary concentrations enhance the initial reduction of the bacterial load in both drug-susceptible TB (DS-TB) as well as TB with reduced susceptibility to INH. If proven, this novel inhalation-based approach may lead to a massive decline in further spread of (drug resistant) TB. Objectives: The primary objective of this study is to investigate the local tolerability of isoniazid inhalation by wet nebulization at single ascending dosages. Secondary objective is systemic pharmacokinetics of inhaled isoniazid compared to intravenous dose administration. Study design: single-center, single ascending dose tolerability study. Participants will receive one intravenous dose of 300 mg INH and three inhaled doses of INH by using an eFlow nebulizer in ascending order (200 mg, 600 mg and 1200 mg) with at least 48 hours and maximum seven days in between doses. Before each INH administration, an indwelling venous cannula will be inserted and before and after each administration, serum samples will be collected for pharmacokinetic analysis. To investigate local tolerability, lung function tests will be performed once before and twice after inhalation of INH and the occurrence of adverse events will be scored. After every inhalation dose the study team will decide on escalation to the next dose step whereby a drop of forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) of \>15 % is considered critical next to specific other adverse events. Study population: 8 adult patients with tuberculosis with known drug susceptibility Main study parameters/endpoints: For the local tolerability, spirometry will be performed and adverse events will be recorded. The following serum pharmacokinetic parameters will be calculated: AUC24 (area under the concentration-time curve over 24 hours), Cmax (maximum serum concentration), Tmax (time to maximum serum concentration), actual dose inhaled. Nature and extent of the burden and risks associated with participation, benefit and group relatedness: Patients with DS-TB receive INH as part of usual care and this will temporarily be replaced by levofloxacin during the study period in order not to interfere with the intervention (this is not applicable for other forms of TB). From INH resistant TB (Hr-TB) it is known that this replacement does not impact on the efficacy of the treatment or its duration. An electrocardiogram will be performed before and after initiation of levofloxacin, because of the potential risk of QTc-interval prolongation. There is no benefit with participation in the study. Taking part in the study takes extra time and the measurements such as spirometry and drawing of blood samples may give slight inconvenience. Participants may also experience adverse effects of isoniazid inhalations or levofloxacin tablets. Common adverse effects reported with administration of aerosolized antibiotics include wheezing, haemoptysis, and dyspnoea. After each inhalation dose the study team will determine if a drop of FEV1 \> 15% or relevant adverse events have occurred and whether it is safe for the participant to move on to a higher dose. Halfway through the study a report will be made describing the withdrawals, spirometry results and the cumulative adverse events seen for judgement by the study team. Stop criteria are defined for premature ending of the study at thi

This is a prospective, multi-center, open-label, cluster randomized controlled clinical trial conducted in school settings to estimate the non-inferiority effect of 1H3P3 compared with 3HR.

It has been estimated that 1.7 billion people have tuberculosis (TB) infection; yet current tests are unable to predict which people are at highest risk of developing TB disease, which can be life-threatening. THWART-TB is a prospective longitudinal cohort study of health workers (HWs) in Cape Town, South Africa, where our preliminary data reveals HWs have a high annual TB infection risk (34%). This cohort, who will undergo frequent serial evaluation (every 3 months) with a combination of novel assays never previously evaluated together, presents a unique opportunity to evaluate immune responses at the time of initial infection and to characterize the dynamic profile of these immune responses over time in a high-risk population. The knowledge generated will improve our understanding of TB infection and help to identify which people exposed to TB may remain at risk, enabling us to better target preventive strategies.

This two-phase, mixed-methods approach project aims to develop a community-based, participatory, and co-created TB/TB infection (TBI) screening care pathway for African and Hindustan immigrants, who often face socioeconomic vulnerabilities and barriers to healthcare access, including TB/TBI screening. The first phase involves the co-design of a TB/TBI screening care pathway through four thematic workshops using the Double-Diamond theoretical framework. These workshops will engage key stakeholders, including immigrants, community leaders, healthcare professionals, and academics, to identify barriers, define needs, and develop actionable measures to improve TB/TBI screening care. The second phase involves a community-based study to implement the care pathway and estimate the incidence of TB and TBI among 200 immigrants from Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Participants will be recruited through Grupcommunity services, and data will be collected on demographic, socioeconomic, health, and migration-related factors. The screening pathway will be implemented and evaluated, with patient-related outcomes measured to assess its effectiveness. The primary outcomes include the development of a culturally sensitive TB/TBI screening care pathway and the estimation of TB and TBI incidence among high-risk immigrant populations. Secondary outcomes include the profiling of immigrant populations, the identification of social vulnerabilities, and the establishment of eligibility criteria for TB/TBI screening in similar populations. We expected to advance knowledge on the specific needs of vulnerable immigrants regarding TB/TBI screening and care and to empower communities, improve access to healthcare, and inform policymakers on tailored prevention and control strategies. The findings will contribute to the global effort to eliminate TB by addressing the unique challenges faced by immigrant populations in low-incidence countries like Portugal.

The TBnet registry is a multinational, prospective tuberculosis registry established by the Tuberculosis Network European Trialsgroup (TBnet e.V.) to collect and analyze long-term data from TB patients across Europe. Its purpose is to centralize data on TB epidemiology, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment to improve care, support research, and ultimately help eliminate TB. The registry captures risk factors, diagnostic details (e.g., microbiology, imaging, drug resistance), treatment data, side effects, outcomes, and late complications.

RIFA-REAL is a prospective observational longitudinal study evaluating the safety, feasibility, and effectiveness of rifapentine-based shorter treatment regimens for drug-susceptible tuberculosis (DS-TB) and tuberculosis infection (TBI) under routine programmatic conditions in Kazakhstan. The study enrolls three cohorts: patients with DS-TB receiving the 4-month isoniazid-rifapentine-moxifloxacin-pyrazinamide regimen (2HPMZ/2HPM), patients with DS-TB receiving the standard 6-month isoniazid-rifampicin-pyrazinamide-ethambutol regimen (2HRZE/4HR), and individuals with TBI receiving the 1-month rifapentine-isoniazid regimen (1HP). Participants include people living with and without HIV. The study is conducted across four regions of Kazakhstan and is funded through the Western-Eastern European Partnership Initiative on HIV, Viral Hepatitis and TB (WEEPI) grant. Findings will inform national TB policy and contribute to global evidence on programmatic implementation of rifapentine-based regimens.

Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) or Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection results in significant morbidity and mortality in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) patients. HSCT patients often face opportunistic infections due to the immunosuppressive state during transplantation. Antimicrobial drugs are usually used for prophylactic purposes and for treatment after early detectable infections. Unfortunately, some patients develop resistance to such drug treatment. In addition to HSCT patient, immune compromised patient may also be victim to opportunistic infections. Many infections can be effectively managed by functional immune recovery. In this study, the safety and efficacy of microbial-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) will be investigated.

Current tuberculosis (TB) treatment is effective (works well), but it takes a long time to cure TB. This study will evaluate if TB treatment with a higher dose of rifampicin, one of the TB medicines, and shorter TB treatment duration is as effective and safe as the standard, TB treatment (with the usual rifampicin dose and usual duration). This study hopes to find a better shorter treatment that works as well as the current treatment (standard of care). This could benefit children worldwide who are getting TB treatment. Children 3 months to less than 10 years of age who have drug-susceptible TB (can be successfully treated with standard TB medicines) are eligible for this study.

The French Tuberculosis Cohort is a prospective, national, multicenter, low-intervention study including subjects aged 18 years and older with tuberculosis disease for which inpatient treatment is initiated. The goal of this observational study is to follow-up and anti-tuberculosis treatment will be provided according to current French recommendations. Participants will provide sociodemographic, clinical, biological, radiological and bacteriological data at various protocol visits at 2 days, 1 and 2 weeks, 2 months, at the end of treatment, 12 and 24 months. Consenting participants will have samples collected at scheduled visits for the establishment of a biobank. This will include blood, urine, breath and hair samples. The positive mycobacterial strains will constitute a specimen bank.

A Phase I, Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo Controlled Trial to Evaluate Safety and Immunogenicity of Lipovaxin Tuberculosis Vaccine (Bio Farma) in Healthy Populations Aged 18-40 Years in Indonesia

Tuberculosis (TB) is a global pandemic that despite successful treatment and bacterial eradication can cause chronic ill health, such as pulmonary impairment after tuberculosis (PIAT) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). A recent Phase 2b double-blind randomised-controlled clinical trial shows that adjunctive doxycycline therapy is safe, accelerates resolution of inflammation, suppresses tissue damaging enzyme activity and decreases pulmonary cavity volume (1). We aim to determine if adjunctive doxycycline can reduce PIAT and improve cardiovascular outcomes in a fully powered Phase III trial of 8 weeks of adjunctive doxycycline alongside standard pulmonary TB (PTB) treatment. The investigators hypothesize that doxycycline inhibits tissue destruction in patients with PTB and thereby leads to improved lung function after treatment. Specific aims 1. To assess improvement in lung function as measured by forced expiratory volume (FEV1) predicted in PTB patients given doxycycline versus placebo. 2. To investigate whether doxycycline will hasten the resolution of pulmonary cavities measured by CT thorax 3. To investigate whether doxycycline can suppress inflammatory markers including matrix metalloproteinases 4. To investigate whether doxycycline can accelerate time to sputum conversion 5. To evaluate the effect of doxycycline on cardiovascular outcomes such as the incidence of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and pulmonary hypertension 6. To investigate whether doxycycline improves TB drug concentrations in sputum and plasma. 7. To assess the safety profile of doxycycline with concurrent standard anti-tuberculous treatment.

This study, titled "Effect of Mycobacterial Infection on Immune Status" (EMIIS), investigates the immune-driven mechanisms of mycobacterial infections, focusing on the dynamic immune characteristics of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infections, and tuberculous pleurisy. Mycobacterial infections (including the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and nontuberculous mycobacteria) remain a major global public health threat. EMIIS is a single-center, randomized, single-blind,prospective study. The study recruited 120 participants, divided into groups of healthy individuals/community-acquired pneumonia patients, active pulmonary tuberculosis patients, latent tuberculosis infection patients, tuberculous pleurisy patients, and nontuberculous mycobacteria patients. Blood samples were collected from all groups within 3 days before treatment and 2-3 months after treatment. Pleural effusion samples were additionally collected from the tuberculous pleurisy group within 3 days before treatment and 2 months after treatment. Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) was collected from the nontuberculous mycobacteria group. Utilizing mass cytometry (CyTOF) and multi-dimensional indicators, the study aims to elucidate the immune-driven mechanisms of mycobacterial infections and provide new strategies for individualized treatment.

Sepsis, a life-threatening condition due to a dysregulated response to infection, is the leading cause of global mortality and is frequently driven by tuberculosis (TB) and drug-resistant bacteria in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly among people living with HIV. The prevailing standard of care in the region, ceftriaxone alone, is insufficient as it does not address TB, drug-resistant bacteria, or adrenal insufficiency, which is common in HIV-related sepsis. Therefore, the investigators propose a randomized 2x2 factorial clinical trial to compare 28-day survival from sepsis between study participants who along with a standard of care that includes immediate conventional anti-TB treatment receive 1) hydrocortisone to treat septic shock and 2) rifampin, isoniazid, levofloxacin and linezolid to treat TB and other drug-resistant bacteria in order to deliver important and scalable knowledge that may alter the standard of care for sepsis in HIV endemic settings of sub-Saharan Africa. Improving understanding of the physiology and treatment alternatives for HIV related critical illness globally will have reciprocal benefit for health in the U.S.

Public understanding of tuberculosis (TB) is shaped by sociocultural norms, educational background, and personal experiences. Misconceptions about TB transmission, disease severity, and treatment side effects are widespread, contributing to stigma and fear of social rejection. Such stigma can lead individuals to conceal their diagnosis, limiting access to support, engagement with healthcare, and overall health literacy. TB-related stigma is recognised as a significant barrier to ending the global TB epidemic, affecting quality of life and access to care. Yet in high-income, low-incidence (HILI) countries like the UK, its prevalence, influence, and lived impact remain largely unexplored. Where stigma appears in research, it is often treated as an emerging theme, leaving a critical gap in understanding how individuals with TB, or those caring or supporting them, experience and respond to it. This study adopts a Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) approach to examine TB-related stigma in depth. CGT allows the research to explore how people living with TB make sense of, interpret, negotiate, and resist stigma, capturing the dynamic and contextual ways it shapes their lives, identities, and interactions with healthcare systems. By investigating these meaning-making processes, the study aims to illuminate how stigma operates in the UK, providing insights to inform future stigma-reduction interventions, communication strategies, and supportive healthcare practices, ultimately benefiting patients, communities, and the NHS.

To reduce the burden of TB worldwide through more accurate, faster, simpler, and less expensive diagnosis of TB Every year, more than 3 million people with TB remain undiagnosed and 1 million die. Better diagnostics are essential to reducing the enormous burden of TB worldwide. The Rapid Research in Diagnostics Development for TB Network (R2D2 TB Network) brings together experts in TB care, technology assessment, diagnostics development, laboratory medicine, epidemiology, health economics and mathematical modeling with highly experienced clinical study sites in 10 countries.

TB is the single biggest infectious cause of death (1.5 million died in 2018), killing more HIV-positive people than any other disease, and is arguably the most important poverty-related disease in the world. TB's estimated incidence in Africa has been declining over recent years but progress is slow and plateauing. To avert stagnation, truly innovative and ambitious technologies are needed, especially those that improve case finding and time-to-diagnosis as, in mathematical models based on the TB care cascade framework, interventions that accomplish this will have the most impact on disrupting population-level transmission, including when deployed at facilities where patients are readily accessible. Critically, these interventions (triage tests) must promote access to confirmatory testing (e.g., Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra) by enabling patients to be referred rapidly and efficiently during the same visit. The investigators will optimise and evaluate a technology that, aside from the investigators early case-controlled study to show feasibility, is hitherto not meaningfully investigated for TB. This gap is alarming given, on one hand, the enormity of the TB epidemic and the need for a triage test and, on the other hand, promising proofs-of-concept that demonstrate high diagnostic accuracy of cough audio classifier for respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, asthma. pertussis, croup, and COPD. In some cases, these classification systems are CE-marked, awaiting FDA-approval, and subject to late-stage clinical trials. This demonstrates the promise of the underlying technological principle. CAGE-TB's innovation is further enhanced by: applying advanced machine learning methods that the team have specifically developed for TB patient cough audio analysis, use of mixed methods research - drawing from health economics, implementation science, and medical anthropology - to inform product design and assess barriers and facilitators to implementation, and uniquely for a TB diagnostic test, its potential deployment as a pure mHealth (smartphone-based) innovation that mitigates many barriers that typically jeopardise TPP criteria fulfilment.

Background: Most people with tuberculosis (TB) feel better after starting treatment. But for some people, the opposite happens. They may feel better at first, but then suddenly get worse. This is a paradoxical reaction. Researchers want to better understand what causes this reaction and what happens after someone has it. Objective: To learn about paradoxical reactions to TB treatment. Eligibility: Adults 18 and older diagnosed with confirmed or suspected TB and currently on treatment for at least 2 weeks, with or without signs/symptoms of a paradoxical inflammatory reaction. Design: Participants will be screened with a physical exam and medical history. They will give blood and urine samples. Eligible participants will visit either the NIH Clinical Center or the Mexico Clinic sites 3 times over 6 to 18 months. Each visit will take 7 hours to complete; visits may be scheduled over more than 1 day. Participants may have more visits if their TB symptoms change. Participants will give blood, urine, and sputum samples. They will have adverse event assessments. They will have 2 to 3 positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scans. PET/CT scans make pictures of the inside of the body. For this, participants will lie on a table that slides into a donut-shaped scanner. They will get a small amount of radioactive dye through an IV, which is a small plastic tube placed in a vein in the arm using a needle. Participants may have optional apheresis at the NIH site only. For this, blood is taken from a needle in one arm. White blood cells are separated from the rest of the blood. The rest of the blood is returned through a needle in the other arm.

The incidence of tuberculosis has decreased over the last 2 years on the national territory (6.4/100,000 inhabitants) but remains twice as high in Ile de France where it is increasing with an increase of almost 10% in the number of cases. reported between 2015 and 2017 . the notification rate of tuberculosis disease for the year 2020 was 14.3 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (i.e. 1757 cases declared) which is more than double that found at the national level . As the disease is multifocal, patients are likely to be hospitalized in different departments with variable care and compliance support offered. One of the major issues is compliance with treatment. Indeed, INVS data (2008-2014) report a percentage of treatment completed in pulmonary tuberculosis of 73% . Among these cases, 20% had a potentially unfavorable outcome, including 45% lost to follow-up, which creates a risk of relapse and contagiousness for those around them. The latest data reported in 2022 over the period 2014-2018 seem to show an increase in treatment completeness but completeness remains variable from one region to another and from one year to another Using Public Health France data, the investigator were able to collect the proportion of completeness of treatment at Saint Antoine hospital, which is 60% over the period 2014-2016 (Public Health France, unpublished data). In more recent work carried out within the department retrospectively between 2019-2021, the investigator compared treatment outcomes depending on whether or not patients benefit from ETP support and it is 66% among patients without it. benefited, thus confirming the data from Public Health France over a more recent period.. In this context, several other studies have shown the interest of a therapeutic education program on the completeness of the treatment.