Immunity to dengue virus
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Human immune responses to dengue virus and other flaviviruses and modulation of immunity during host-directed therapy and vaccination.
IRAS ID
273558
Contact name
Laura Rivino
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Research and Enterprise Development
Duration of Study in the UK
10 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Dengue virus (DENV) is a flavivirus which causes the most prevalent mosquito-borne viral disease afflicting humans. Infections are increasing at alarming rates across tropical and sub-tropical regions, with a 400% increase in 13 years and a recent estimate of 390 million infections per year resulting in 500,000 severe cases and 20,000 deaths. There is no specific therapeutic for dengue and the only licensed dengue vaccine has demonstrated partial protective efficacy, highlighting the need for an improved understanding of the immune correlates of protection to DENV.
Our study aims to define the immune responses that correlates with protective immunity to DENV and other related flaviviruses. We will also investigate the immune responses associated to severe dengue disease, which is believed to be driven by the host adaptive immune response. We will focus mainly on T and NK cells, which are proposed to play important roles in protection and/or immunopathology during DENV infection and which have been less characterized in the context of DENV/flavivirus infection.
To achieve this we will analyze samples from dengue patients, healthy volunteers and healthy individuals receiving the licensed Yellow Fever Virus (YFV) vaccine, YFV17D.
We will also analyze blood samples from dengue patients and healthy donors receiving metformin, a candidate therapeutic for DENV, to evaluate the impact of this drug on the T/NK cell response. These samples have been or will be collected by our clinical collaborators from participants outside of the UK, after ethical approvals by the local committees and full informed consent of participants at: the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU), Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) and Singapore General Hospital (SGH) in Singapore. The collected samples will be shipped to the UoB and stored before analysis. Any clinical information provided to us will be anonymized.REC name
London - Brent Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/1809
Date of REC Opinion
21 Jan 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion