This study is a clinical trial in healthy adult volunteers to evaluate the safety, immunogenicity and efficacy of a live attenuated ETEC vaccine, ACE527, with and without a mucosal adjuvant, dmLT. This study was designed initially as a single site, Phase 1, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, clinical trial in healthy adult volunteers to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of a live attenuated ETEC vaccine, ACE527, with and without a mucosal adjuvant, dmLT (Part A). The addition of a challenge step provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the efficacy of the new lyophilized formulation of ACE527 vaccine, given in a two or three dose regimen, with and without dmLT, against wild type ETEC strain H10407 challenge (designated as Part B: Phase 2b Open Label Challenge Study). In addition, challenging the volunteers may allow for the identification of immune correlates of protection, taking advantage of newly available technologies (immune proteomics, transcriptomics, etc.)

ACE527 comprises three genetically attenuated and engineered strains of E. coli, with antigen profiles covering a wide range of ETEC surface colonization factor antigens (CFA/I, CFA/II \[CS1, CS2, CS3\] and CFA/IV \[CS5, CS6\]) and also expressing LT-B, the inactive subunit of LT (ETEC heat labile toxin). LT(R192G/L211A), or dmLT, is a derivative of wild-type enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin that has been genetically modified by replacing the arginine at amino acid position 192 with glycine and the leucine at amino acid position 211 with alanine.

Volunteers were enrolled in Part A into each of two separate Cohorts. Cohort 1 and 2 volunteers received 10\^10 colony-forming units (cfu) total dose of ACE527, 10\^10 cfu total dose of ACE527 with 25 µg dmLT, or placebo at 0, 1, and 2 months. Enrollment and dosing of Cohort 2 was dependent on an acceptable safety profile of the first dose of Cohort 1, based on evaluation of data up until Day 3 by the Safety Review Committee (SRC). The first immunization of each Cohort was administered in the Center for Immunization Research (CIR) Inpatient Unit, followed by 72 hours of direct post-immunization observation. The SRC met after the first dose of cohort to determine continuation of volunteer dosing on an outpatient basis, and enrollment of Cohort 2. The SRC met again after the first dose of Cohort 2 after concluding that the first dose appeared safe and well tolerated, subsequent doses would be administered on an outpatient basis. Safety was assessed by solicited symptoms/subject memory aid and laboratory evaluations. Adverse events (AE)s were graded according to standardized criteria. The immunogenicity outcome measures of interest include serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) against all vaccine antigens, cytokine assays, B and T cell memory responses, shedding profile of ACE527, and vaccine specific mucosal IgA responses.

Part B challenge cohorts were recruited among those participating in Part A; plus additional unvaccinated control volunteers sufficient to enroll up to a total of 60 recruited, as needed. Volunteers in the Phase 2b study were enrolled and challenged in 2-4 cohorts due to the CIR Inpatient Unit capacity of 30 beds. A minimum of 8-10 controls were challenged with each cohort of vaccinees to ensure comparability of attack rates across challenge cohorts. Volunteers were admitted as inpatients and challenged, with approximately 2 x 10\^7 cfu of the fully virulent ETEC strain, H10407, followed by 5 days of direct observation. A Data Review Committee (DRC) will be convened to review the clinical data for all challenged volunteers and verify all outcomes per protocol definitions before any vaccine efficacy assessments were made.