Britons, aged 18 to 30, who have already been infected with Covid-19, will be voluntarily exposed to the virus to understand the reactions of the immune system.
- To see more clearly about the acquired immunity of Covid patients, young English people will be voluntarily reinfected
- If symptomatic, they will receive treatment with monoclonal antibodies
More than a year after the start of the pandemic, research on Covid-19 continues. In the United Kingdom, researchers at the University of Oxford are interested in the reaction of the immune system to the virus, in particular in people who have already been infected. To understand how it can act to prevent reinfection, they launched a study on young volunteers, aged 18 to 30, who had already been infected. These will be exposed again to the strain of the virus detected in Wuhan.
???? | Human challenge trial launched to study immune response to #COVID19.
Though the virus has now been active for a year, the trial aims to find out what happens when people who have already had COVID-19 are infected for a second time.
Prof Helen McShane explains more ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/YbrjsXZLsh
— University of Oxford (@UniofOxford) April 19, 2021
A two-step study
“When we re-infect these participants, we will know exactly how their immune system reacted to the first infection with Covid-19, but also when the second infection will start precisely, and how much virus they will have been exposed to.explains Helen McShane, professor of vaccinology at the University of Oxford, and director of this study. In addition to allowing us to improve our overall knowledge, it could help us create tests capable of determining precisely whether people are protectedThe first phase will aim to determine the quantity of virus necessary to generate a new infection in these patients. For this first phase, 64 participants should be recruited. Part of the group will receive an increasing quantity of virus to develop the optimal dose required for re-infection The second part of the study will make it possible to precisely evaluate the immune responses at different times.
Quarantine, medical monitoring: carefully monitored participants
For the duration of the experiment, the participants will be hospitalized and scrupulously monitored by the researchers. If symptoms occur, they will be treated with monoclonal antibody therapy. They will also be placed in quarantine until all risk of transmission of the virus is ruled out. In total, the study will last one year: participants will have eight follow-up appointments with the research team. Scientists hope the results will provide important data for the design of treatments and vaccines. “Continuing scientific research, through studies like ours, is the only way to move forward and bring this pandemic under control.“, concludes Shobana Balasingam, co-author.
