The disproportionally burdensome infectious diseases (IDs) within sub-Saharan Africa threatens the outlook of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). However, our scientific understanding of pathogen-NCD axis is very limited and remains to be comprehensively explored. The Group dedicates itself to bridging the gap between the dual health challenge, the ever-imminent threat of IDs and the relentless burden of NCDs particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our mission encompasses three key pillars: Host-Pathogen Interactions, NCD-Microbiome axis and leveraging high-throughput techniques in identifying biomarkers that could serve as diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic candidates. Employing a multidisciplinary approach, our team has made significant strides in unravelling significant biomarkers and microbial signatures in neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), helping us to understand host-pathogen response. We focus in exploring the molecular and immunological mechanisms at the intersection of IDs and NCDs, with the aim of identifying strategies to improve patient outcomes.

Ultimately, our group seeks to:

1. Improve better understanding of comorbidity of IDs and NCDs in sub-Saharan Africa.
2. Identify diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers and novel therapeutic targets that ultimately improves public health outcomes for NCD and ID comorbidities.
3. Develop inclusive research and career platforms in IDs and NCDs to enable capable early-career scientists to emerge as leaders in academia, research institutions, and industry.

Combating social isolation among people living with LF pathologies in Western Region of Ghana.

This project seeks to improve the planning and implementation of campaign delivery and treatment to better reach unreached populations affected by Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) and to provide novel, culturally appropriate, effective evidence-based insight on health interventions to promote the health and wellbeing of people living with the disease in Ghana. Drawing together researchers from the health and social sciences, our interdisciplinary team addresses three aims focused on wellbeing, social inclusion and cultural understandings of LF with a geographic focus on areas particularly hard hit by the disease. This study aims to: (1) determine the causes underpinning social stigmatization of people with LF, and building on these novel data, (2) identify a potential intervention to assist in alleviating stigma and isolation related to LF, (3) implement and assess the intervention, and (4) design a framework for the development of culturally appropriate and effective interventions that can be applied in other LF endemic areas and help to build capacity of community and health workers to fight stigma in other contexts where LF is endemic.

Partners
Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR), Kumasi, Ghana
Funding: Canada Institute of Higher Research

Principal Investigators
Dr. Alexander Kwarteng
Dr. Kristi Keyon

1. Alexander Kwarteng, Solomon Wireko, Samuel Opoku Asiedu, Priscilla Kini, Bill Clinton Aglomasa, Emmanuel Kobla Atsu Amewu, Ebenezer Asiedu, Kennedy Gyau Boahen, Katherine Ryan Amato, Dorcas Obiri-Yeboah. Shift in the skin microbiome among individuals presenting with filarial lymphedema compared to non-filarial healthy individuals in Ghana,Scientific African,Volume 16, 2022,e01237

2. Asiedu SO, Kini P, Aglomasa BC, Amewu EK, Asiedu E, Wireko S, Boahen KG, Berbudi A, Sylverken AA, Kwarteng A. Bacterial diversity significantly reduces toward the late stages among filarial lymphedema patients in the Ahanta West District of Ghana: A cross‐sectional study. Health Science Reports. 2022 Jul;5(4):e724.

3. Kwarteng EV, Andam-Akorful SA, Kwarteng A, Asare DC, Quaye-Ballard JA, Osei FB, Duker AA. Spatial variation in lymphatic filariasis risk factors of hotspot zones in Ghana. BMC public health. 2021 Jan 28;21(1):23

4. Kwarteng, A., Asiedu, E., Sylverken, A., Larbi, A., Mubarik, Y., & Apprey, C. (2021). In silico drug repurposing for filarial infection predicts nilotinib and paritaprevir as potential inhibitors of the Wolbachia 5′-aminolevulinic acid synthase. Scientific reports, 11(1), 8455. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87976-4

5. Kwarteng A, Asiedu E, Mubarik Y, Katawa G, Asiedu SO (2021). Exploring Onchocerca volvulus Cysteine Protease Inhibitor for Multi-epitope Subunit Vaccine Against Onchocerciasis: An Immunoinformatics Approach. International Journal of Peptide Research and Therapeutics. (2021) 8:1-4.

6. Kwarteng, A., Asiedu, E., Sylverken, A. A., Larbi, A., Sakyi, S. A., & Asiedu, S. O. (2021). Molecular characterization of interactions between the D614G variant of SARS-CoV-2 S-protein and neutralizing antibodies: A computational approach. Infection, Genetics and Evolution: Journal of Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics in Infectious Diseases, 91, 104815. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.meegid.2021.104815

7. Ahuno, S.T., Doebley, AL., Ahearn, T.U. Kwarteng A, et al (2021). Circulating tumor DNA is readily detectable among Ghanaian breast cancer patients supporting non-invasive cancer genomic studies in Africa. Nature Precision Journal Precis. Onc. 5, 83 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41698-021-00219-7

8. Alexander Kwarteng, Priscilla Osei-Poku, Daniel Antwi-Berko, Augustina Sylverken, Amma Larbi, Kwabena Nsiah, Blood collection tubes impact expression of activated CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in human whole blood assay, Scientific African, Volume 21,2023, e01797, ISSN 2468-2276, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sciaf.2023.e01797

9. Amewu, E.K.A., Adu-Asiamah, C.K., Baba-Adam, R.K.A., Afful, A.R., Gyau, K.B. and Kwarteng, A., (2023.) Oropharyngeal carriage of potential meningitis-causing bacteria in a Ghanaian prison. Microbes and Infectious Diseases, 4(2), pp.487-496.

10. Ahuno, S. T., Doebley, A. L., Ahearn, T. U., Yarney, J., Titiloye, N., Hamel, N., Adjei, E., Clegg-Lamptey, J. N., Edusei, L., Awuah, B., Song, X., Vanderpuye, V., Abubakar, M., Duggan, M., Stover, D. G., Nyarko, K., Bartlett, J. M. S., Aitpillah, F., Ansong, D., Kwarteng, A, … Biritwum, R. (2021). Circulating tumor DNA is readily detectable among Ghanaian breast cancer patients supporting non-invasive cancer genomic studies in Africa. Npj Precision Oncology 2021 5:1, 5(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41698-021-00219-7

11. Kwarteng, Alexander, Ebenezer Asiedu, Kelvin Kwaku Koranteng, and Samuel Opoku Asiedu. “Highlighting the Relevance of CD8 + T Cells in Filarial Infections” 12, no. September (2021): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.714052