People who have fought off the COVID-19 virus would be deliberately reinfected in a first-of-its-kind trial at the University of Oxford that might shed light on how to develop more effective vaccines against the pathogen.
Researchers are looking for 64 healthy, previously infected volunteers from 18 to 30 years old to be studied under controlled, quarantined conditions for at least 17 days, the university said yesterday.
Participants would be infected with the original strain from Wuhan, China, and followed for a year.
Photo: AFP
Initial data from the Oxford study should be available within several months, helping vaccine developers look at levels and types of immunity needed to prevent reinfection, and how long protection persists.
Challenge trials, involving deliberate, supervised infections, are seen as particularly helpful for answering questions like these, because they allow scientists to scrutinize the details of how the body confronts the virus and vice versa.
While vaccines and previous infections provide some immune protection against the novel coronavirus, concerns and doubts remain about how long it lasts.
A recent study indicated that as much as 10 percent of previously infected young adults were reinfected, underscoring the need for effective vaccines to prevent spread, and Pfizer’s CEO has said that booster shots might be needed to maintain the immunity provided by the initial two doses of the company’s shot.
“The point of this study is to determine what kind of immune response prevents reinfection,” said Helen McShane, a professor of vaccinology at the University of Oxford, and chief investigator on the study.
McShane said the team would measure the levels of various components of participants’ immune response — including T-cells and antibodies — and then track whether participants became reinfected when exposed to the virus.
The first phase of the trial would initially involve 24 participants split into dose groups of three to eight people who would receive, via the nose, the original strain of COVID-19. The idea is to start with a very low dose and, if necessary, increase the dose — up to a point — between groups.
“Our target is to have 50 percent of our subjects infected, but with no, or only very mild, disease,” McShane said, adding that once the dose required to achieve this is determined, it would be administered to 10 to 40 other participants to confirm the dose.
The second phase of the study — expected to start in the summer — would involve a new group of participants and would study closely their immune response before and after exposure to the virus, as well as the level of virus and symptoms in those who become reinfected.
Should reinfection be confirmed, or symptoms develop, in either phase of the trial, participants would be given a monoclonal antibody treatment.
The Oxford study “has the potential to transform our understanding by providing high-quality data on how our immune system responds to a second infection,” said Shobana Balasingam, a research adviser at the Wellcome Trust, which is providing funds.
The findings could “inform not just vaccine development, but also research into the range of effective treatments that are also urgently needed,” she said.
The earliest volunteers in the world’s first human challenge trial involving COVID-19, conducted by Imperial College London, left quarantine late last month.
Critics of challenge trials have pointed out the ethical dangers of infecting people without being sure of its long-term consequences.
The Oxford researchers said that all those enrolled would be completely fit, well and recovered from their first COVID-19 infection.
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