Oxford University said Monday it has launched a trial in which people who have already had COVID-19 are deliberately reinfected.
The carefully controlled study will examine the type of immune response assembled by the volunteers.
Scientists will know “exactly when the second infection occurs and exactly how many viruses they have,” Helen McShane, a professor of vaccinology, said in a statement.
He said the trial “can help us design evidence that can accurately predict whether people are protected” after a previous infection.
Anyone with symptoms will receive Regeneron antibody treatment which is used to treat patients with COVID-19.
Oxford University’s “first in nature” tests are funded by the Wellcome Trust.
At the start of the test, up to 64 healthy, fit volunteers aged 18 to 30 will be deliberately reinfected with the original Wuhan variety.
They will be quarantined for at least 17 days in a special hospital suite, with lung and cardiac examinations. They will then have follow-up appointments and be supervised for one year.
“This study has the potential to transform our understanding by providing high-quality data,” said Shobana Balasingam, senior consultant in vaccine research at Wellcome.
The initial phase of the trial will examine the minimum dose that allows the virus to begin replicating asymptomatic in approximately 50 percent of volunteers.
Then, in the second phase, another group of volunteers will receive this established minimum dose.
The trial comes when a London hospital isolated a group of healthy volunteers while exposing them to the virus, in a world first place.
This began in March and is being carried out in collaboration between Imperial College London and the company hVIVO at the Royal London Hospital.
Those who have become infected are monitored in a controlled manner to see how their disease progresses and how medications and vaccines can work.
© France-Presse Agency