Pneumococcal pneumonia kills over a million children each year and costs the NHS nearly a billion pounds annually, yet no one fully understands why some people exposed to the bacteria and respiratory viruses become infected while others do not. This research addresses a critical gap: we know that winter viruses like influenza and RSV dramatically worsen pneumonia burden, but we lack the tools to study how these infections interact inside the nose, how bacteria spread between people, and why older adults are especially vulnerable. The researcher has built the world’s only controlled human infection model for pneumococcus, where about half of volunteers become colonised for 1–4 weeks. Now they will pioneer co-infection challenge models with pneumococcus and respiratory viruses in both young and older adults. If successful, this work could reveal whether vaccines and drugs targeting viruses also provide indirect protection against pneumococcal infections—a question with direct implications for vaccine policy. It will define the nasal immune signatures that protect against infection, potentially accelerating vaccine development and reducing pneumonia deaths in at-risk groups in the UK and globally. The findings will also strengthen pandemic preparedness by improving our scarce understanding of nasal immunity.
View original technical description
Pneumococcal pneumonia kills over a million children every year globally and is one of the major health burdens in adults with chronic lung disease and aged over 65 years in the UK, costing the NHS almost a billion each year. Pneumonia burden is substantially aggravated by respiratory virus in the winter, particularly when influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are circulating. In this fellowship I will use pioneering methods to answer crucial questions on how synergy of respiratory infections leads to a more pronounced burden of pneumococcal disease and community transmission, what are the nasal correlates of protection and how indirect protection by drugs and vaccination can be used to curb disease burden. I have developed the only pneumococcus controlled human infection model (CHIM) in the world in which ~50% of people challenged with the bacteria become colonised for a period of 1-4 weeks. This model is a unique tool to understand why some people get exposed to pneumococcus and respiratory virus and do not develop infection whilst others do. It is also valuable to define correlates of protection and accelerate vaccine development. I will now pioneer the development of virus co-infection challenge models to define host susceptibility and how ageing influence these processes. I will make substantial advances in the pneumonia prevention by researching in 3 workstreams: Workstream1: Epidemiology and transmission: household cohort and novel sampling tools to understand how the bacteria shed out of the nose and spread between person to person within households and which factors such as presence of respiratory viruses and nose inflammation are associated with increased transmission. Workstream2: Host: ground-breaking development of co-infection human challenge models with Pneumococcus and viruses (RSV and Influenza) in young and older adults to study nasal bacterial and virus dynamics, shedding and correlates of protection and susceptibility. I will discover with unprecedented detail which nasal immunity changes associated with ageing explain increased risk of pneumonia. Workstream 3: Vaccines: Within the next 5 years, pneumococcus vaccines with increased coverage and new vaccines for RSV and influenza will be coming to the market. I will use these challenge models to define correlates of protection induced by vaccines and to answer the most burning question on pneumonia prevention: Can drugs and vaccines targeting virus infections also provide indirect protection (off-target) against pneumococcal infections. To support these workstreams, I will conduct 3 cross-cutting activities: 1.Discussing and explaining Pneumonia science 2.Engaging and advocating with the UK government and stakeholders 3.Training the researchers of the future. The knowledge generated will be explored for development of new interventions such anti-virus and drugs targeting the host body response. Increasing our scarce knowledge on nasal immunity against respiratory virus will also help future pandemic preparedness. Reducing respiratory disease burden is the key target of the UK Department of Health Social Care. Better understanding of respiratory infections synergy, transmission and associated nasal immunity can unlock the potential for indirect protection by vaccination to reduce mortality, morbidity and costs associated with pneumonia in at-risk groups in the UK and globally.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know