Healthy, young volunteers who have previously been infected with COVID-19 are deliberately exposed to a second coronavirus to see how the immune system responds as part of a new UK study. Will be done.
Oxford University researchers on Monday “Human Challenge” Trial To investigate what happens when volunteers who have recovered from coronavirus disease are re-infected with the virus.
The study, funded by Wellcome Trust, will begin within the first few weeks of ethical approval and may help accelerate the development of new treatments and vaccines for the disease. ..
Research on human challenges has played an important role in the development of treatments for many diseases, including malaria, typhoid fever, cholera, and influenza.
Helen McShane, a professor of vaccination at the University of Oxford Pediatrics and a principal investigator in the study, said:
“The information gained from this study will help us design better vaccines and treatments and understand if and how long people are protected after receiving COVID.” McShane said.
The first phase of the trial will involve up to 64 volunteers aged 18-30 years who were previously naturally infected with COVID-19. It establishes the lowest dose of virus that can settle in about 50% of participants and initiate replication, while at the same time causing few or no symptoms.
Volunteers are monitored in a safe and controlled environment while isolated for a minimum of 17 days in a specially designed hospital suite.Regeneron is given to people who develop coronavirus symptoms
rain,
Monoclonal antibody therapy.
Once a standard dose is established, it will be used to infect various volunteers in the second phase of the trial, which is scheduled to begin in the summer. The total duration of the study is 12 months and includes a minimum of 8 follow-up appointments after the volunteer is discharged.
read: Young and healthy adults will be paid £ 4,500 to knowingly infect COVID-19 in a new trial
This new study, unlike a parallel study led by Imperial College London, published in February, exposed up to 90 carefully selected healthy adult volunteers to the coronavirus, how the virus infects people, and Allows researchers to understand how it is transmitted.
It comes almost the same Ten million According to the latest government statistics, British people are currently receiving a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Currently, three vaccines are used in the UK. One was co-developed by German biotechnology BioNTech.
BNTX,
And US pharmaceutical company Pfizer
PFE,
Manufactured by AstraZeneca, a pharmaceutical company at Oxford University.And shots from biotechnology moderna
MRNA,
Last week Moderna said it would offer Less than expected COVID-19 vaccine to the UK, Canada and other countries following underproduction in the European supply chain.
