MYCOWALC
Analysis of mycobacteria with altered lipoglycan cell wall composition
July 2010 - July 2013
100,000 euro, funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
The Mycowalc project is coordinated by the university of Porto, Portugal and partners with the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and the Netherlands Vaccine Institute. The project is funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and monitored by TBVI.
Mycowalc started in July 2010 and is scheduled to finish in July 2013
Main objective: To improve the understanding of how different LAM species may affect the induction of protective immune responses and how they protect mycobacteria from these immune responses.
1) Dissecting the role of ManLAM in the immune response to BCG, the quality of the protective immune responses induced by wild-type versus mutant BCG strains either lacking or over-expressing the CapA mannosyl-transferase
2) Study the fate of M.tuberculosis lacking this enzyme system to address its role in virulence in mycobacteria.
The following tasks will take place during the project:
- Generation of recombinant strains of M. bovis BCG and M. tuberculosis.
- Characterization of the response to mutant strains in cultured macrophages and dendritic cells.
- Study of the kinetics of growth and immune response to BCG strains in vivo in a mouse model of infection.
- Analysis of the protective efficacy of the BCG strains in an aerosol model of M. tuberculosis challenge.
-Study of the kinetics of growth and immune response to M. tuberculosis strains in vivo in a mouse model of infection.