LONDON: People who have fought the Covid-19 virus will be deliberately reinfected in a first such trial at Oxford University that may shed light on how to develop more effective vaccines against the pathogen.
Researchers are looking for 64 healthy volunteers, previously infected with Covid, aged 18 to 30 to study under controlled conditions and in quarantine for at least 17 days, the British university said on Monday. Participants will be infected with the original strain from Wuhan, China, and will be followed for one year.
Initial data from the Oxford study should be available in a few months, which would help vaccine developers examine the levels and types of immunity needed to prevent reinfection and the duration of protection. Challenge trials, which include deliberate and supervised infections, are considered especially useful in answering questions like these, because they allow scientists to examine the details of how the body faces the virus and vice versa.
Live Updates: Second Wave Covid in India
Although previous vaccines and infections provide some immune protection against coronavirus, there are still doubts and doubts about their duration. A recent study indicated that up to 10% of previously infected young adults were re-infected, underscoring the need for effective vaccines to prevent the spread, and the CEO of Pfizer Inc. said booster shots may be needed to maintain the immunity provided by the first two doses of the company’s shot.
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 advisor with the Wellcome Trust, which provides funding. . The results could “inform not only the development of vaccines, but also research into the range of effective treatments that are also urgently needed.”
One of the goals of the study is to determine how many viruses it takes, on average, to infect someone who has had the virus before. In a second phase of the study, this dose will be given to a different group of patients and their immune responses will be studied, Oxford said.
The first volunteers of the world’s first human challenge trial with coronavirus, conducted by Imperial College London, left quarantine in late March. This lawsuit, which intentionally infected people who had not previously had the virus, received support of £ 33.6 million ($ 46.3 million) from UK government funding.
Critics of the challenge trials have pointed to the ethical dangers of infecting people without being sure of their long-term consequences. Oxford researchers said all entrants will be fully fit, recovered from their first Covid infection.
Participants who develop symptoms of Covid will be treated with an antibody drug from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. which has been authorized by U.S. regulators, Oxford said. According to the statement, the subjects will only be discharged from the quarantine unit when they are no longer infected and are not at risk of infecting other people.
Researchers are looking for 64 healthy volunteers, previously infected with Covid, aged 18 to 30 to study under controlled conditions and in quarantine for at least 17 days, the British university said on Monday. Participants will be infected with the original strain from Wuhan, China, and will be followed for one year.
Initial data from the Oxford study should be available in a few months, which would help vaccine developers examine the levels and types of immunity needed to prevent reinfection and the duration of protection. Challenge trials, which include deliberate and supervised infections, are considered especially useful in answering questions like these, because they allow scientists to examine the details of how the body faces the virus and vice versa.
Live Updates: Second Wave Covid in India
Although previous vaccines and infections provide some immune protection against coronavirus, there are still doubts and doubts about their duration. A recent study indicated that up to 10% of previously infected young adults were re-infected, underscoring the need for effective vaccines to prevent the spread, and the CEO of Pfizer Inc. said booster shots may be needed to maintain the immunity provided by the first two doses of the company’s shot.
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 advisor with the Wellcome Trust, which provides funding. . The results could “inform not only the development of vaccines, but also research into the range of effective treatments that are also urgently needed.”
One of the goals of the study is to determine how many viruses it takes, on average, to infect someone who has had the virus before. In a second phase of the study, this dose will be given to a different group of patients and their immune responses will be studied, Oxford said.
The first volunteers of the world’s first human challenge trial with coronavirus, conducted by Imperial College London, left quarantine in late March. This lawsuit, which intentionally infected people who had not previously had the virus, received support of £ 33.6 million ($ 46.3 million) from UK government funding.
Critics of the challenge trials have pointed to the ethical dangers of infecting people without being sure of their long-term consequences. Oxford researchers said all entrants will be fully fit, recovered from their first Covid infection.
Participants who develop symptoms of Covid will be treated with an antibody drug from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. which has been authorized by U.S. regulators, Oxford said. According to the statement, the subjects will only be discharged from the quarantine unit when they are no longer infected and are not at risk of infecting other people.