Inspiration

This project was inspired by Pank, a little dog that used to live in the streets of the city of Foz Iguaçu, Brazil, until being rescued and adopted. At first, Pank was kinda angry and didn't like humans, probably because she had suffered a lot on the streets. However, it took her just a short time to learn how to give and receive a lot of affection, and then she became friends with the people who are now part of our team.

Unfortunately, in June 2019, she was diagnosed with Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis (CVL) and in March 2020 she passed away. Pank was one among millions of other cases of this disease that affects not only dogs, but also humans.

Leishmaniasis in Foz do Iguaçu

Foz do Iguaçu is part of a region known as the triple border, between Brasil, Paraguay and Argentina. Here we are faced with a major public health problem concerning Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL), a neglected tropical disease.

Punk was one of 2,790 dogs diagnosed with CVL in Foz do Iguaçu by the Zoonosis Control Center (CCZ) alone between 2015 and 2019. Although large, these numbers are underreported, according to researcher Vanete Soccol[1]. In 2017, she estimated that 13,085 dogs in Foz had the parasite, which represented 23.8% of all dogs in the city, a number likely to be higher today. However, VL does not only affect dogs, but also humans; Brazil accounts for 97% of reported human cases of the disease in the Americas[2] and an estimated 1.69 billion people worldwide live in VL transmission areas[3].

On top of it, all these losses bring a significant economic impact. In just one year, Leishmaniasis cost Brazil more than $14 million[4], which demonstrates the wide-ranging impact of the disease affecting many areas of life. Thus, overcoming Leishmaniasis and several other neglected tropical diseases could potentially contribute to the sustainable development goals (SDGs), such as promoting healthy living (Goal 3) and eradicating poverty (Goal 1).

BioPank Project

The complexity of this disease demands a broad vision that reaches both molecular and social levels. For us, solving it means reaching all parties involved satisfactorily. Therefore, as a scientific project, BioPank aims at creating a genetic circuit)to target the leishmaniasis parasite within its vector, the sandfly. At the same time, the social goal of the project is to raise awareness about the disease and improve the quality of future VL data) in our region.

References

1. Thomaz-Soccol V, Pasquali AKS, Pozzolo EM, Leandro AS, Chiyo L. Baggio R, Michaliszyn MS, et al. More than the eyes can see: the worrying scenario of canine leishmaniasis in the Brazilian side of the triple border. PloS One. 2017;12(12): https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189182.

2. Pan American Health Organization. Leishmaniasis: Epidemiological Report in the Americas. Number 9, December 2020. Washington, D.C.: PAHO; 2020

3. PLOS. "How visceral leishmaniasis spread through central-Southern Brazil." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 August 2019. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190829150816.htm.

4. CARVALHO, Isis Polianna Silva Ferreira de. Leishmaniose visceral no Brasil: avaliação econômica dos esquemas de tratamento. 2019. 202 f., il. Tese (Doutorado em Medicina Tropical)—Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, 2019. https://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/36892 .