In a groundbreaking endeavour, an ambitious new research project (iThemba) was recently launched at Tygerberg Children's Hospital in collaboration with the Desmond Tutu TB Centre at Stellenbosch University. Tuberculous meningitis (TBM), the most common form of meningitis in the Western Cape, has long posed a significant health threat with its devastating impact despite adequate antituberculosis treatment. iThemba (Xhosa: Hope) embarks on a mission to unravel the mysteries of this disease with the goal of improving the lives of affected children.

TBM presents unique challenges in diagnosis and treatment, often with non-specific symptoms that lead to delayed therapy initiation. The conventional diagnostic tests also suffer from low sensitivity, necessitating a reliance on a combination of clinical, laboratory, and radiological findings for diagnosis.

iThemba is an ambitious multi-omics project that aims to fully characterize a large sample of TBM patients, to achieve a holistic understanding of the disease's pathogenesis. In the neuroimaging component of the project, researchers will use advanced imaging techniques (MRI, PET-CT) to study the evolution of ischaemia in the disease, and its relations to genetic predisposition, proteins, metabolites, and pharmacokinetics.

The project, led by Dr James Seddon, is made possible by an NIH R01 grant, generously funding the additional investigations, imaging, and consumables required to conduct the research. It will span 5 years.

As iThemba sets out to unveil the mysteries of TBM, it offers hope for affected children, their families, and the medical community.

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