Clinical trial NCT04204993: Assessment of Wearable Sensors During Experimental Human Influenza Infection (Sigma Plus)
Official title: Assessment of Wearable Sensors During Experimental Human Influenza Infection (Sigma Plus)
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Influenza A H3N2
Keywords: Influenza A H3N2
Lead sponsor: Imperial College London
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Duke University
name: RTI International
name: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
First posted: 2019-12-19
Enrollment: 20
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 55
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NA
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Intervention model description: Biological: Influenza A/Belgium/4217/2015 at a dose of 5x105 TCID50 in a volume of 0.5 milliliters via intranasal drops
Primary purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE

Brief summary: The aim of the study is to investigate disease in volunteers deliberately infected with influenza A(H3N2), including biological markers of inflammation and immune response, and changes in physiological parameters including heart rate, respiratory rate, physical activity, oxygen saturation and electrocardiographic data during the onset of influenza infection. Ultimately, this may lead to prediction of symptomatic disease at an earlier stage to allow more effective interventions. The experimental medicine study design will involve human influenza infection challenge, whereby volunteers will be inoculated with influenza virus and monitored in hospital for 10 days as they develop and get better from flu. Continuously-monitoring wearable physiological sensors will be given to the participants 7 days before this and worn continuously until the end of the flu infection.

Detailed description: Influenza ('flu') is one of the most common causes of severe lung infection. Seasonal flu affects between 10 and 46% of the population each year and causes around 12 deaths in every 100,000 people infected. Furthermore, new strains of flu viruses emerge unpredictably every few years, causing pandemics that spread rapidly across the world. Since currently available antiviral drugs and vaccines cannot prevent these outbreaks, it is essential to be able to identify flu infections at an early stage to enable rapid treatment of individuals and implementation of public health measures.

The aim of the study is to investigate disease in volunteers deliberately infected with influenza A(H3N2), including biological markers of inflammation and immune response, and changes in physiological parameters including heart rate, respiratory rate, physical activity, oxygen saturation and electrocardiographic data during the onset of influenza infection. To achieve this, the investigators will recruit healthy volunteers and inoculate them with a flu virus, after which they will be observed in hospital while they develop a cold. Each volunteer will be given a number of devices that they will wear before and during infection. In addition, they will have blood and nasal samples taken to examine the way their immune system responds to infection. The resulting data will be analysed to see if the sensors data correlate with the onset of infection and these will be compared with measures of the immune response. Ultimately, the investigators anticipate that optimised sensor data from devices to be developed may be useful in rapidly detecting when someone is about to develop flu infection, so that they can quickly be treated and outbreaks may be identified at an early stage.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Healthy persons aged 18 to 55 years, able to give informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

* Chronic respiratory disease (asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, rhinitis, sinusitis) in adulthood
* Inhaled bronchodilator or steroid use within the last 12 months
* Use of any medication or other product (prescription or over-the-counter) for symptoms of rhinitis or nasal congestion within the last 3 months
* Acute upper respiratory infection (URI or sinusitis) in the past 6 weeks
* Smoking in the past 6 months OR \>5 pack-year lifetime history
* Subjects with allergic symptoms present at baseline
* Clinically relevant abnormality on chest X-ray
* Any ECG abnormality deemed clinically significant.
* Those in close domestic contact (i.e. sharing a household with, caring for, or daily face to face contact) with children under 3 years, the elderly (\>65 years), immunosuppressed persons, or those with chronic respiratory disease
* Subjects with known or suspected immune deficiency
* Receipt of systemic glucocorticoids (in a dose ≥ 5 mg prednisone daily or equivalent) within one month, or any other cytotoxic or immunosuppressive drug within 6 months prior to challenge
* Known immunoglobulin A deficiency, immotile cilia syndrome, or Kartagener's syndrome
* History of frequent nose bleeds
* Any significant medical condition or prescribed drug deemed by the study doctor to make the participant unsuitable for the study
* Pregnant or breastfeeding women
* Positive urine drug screen
* Detectable baseline antibody titres against influenza challenge strains
* History of hypersensitivity to eggs, egg proteins, gentamicin, gelatin or arginine, or with life-threatening reactions to previous influenza vaccinations.
* Participants may only recruited if they have previously been involved in research if they have completed the earlier study and are beyond the washout period of any administered drugs or period of effect of any intervention that would cause interference for either study.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Number of PCR-confirmed Influenza Infections
timeFrame: Baseline to day 28
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Time to Algorithmic Detection of Heart Rate Abnormalities
timeFrame: Baseline to day 10
measure: Tissue Oxygen Levels
timeFrame: Baseline to day 10
measure: Participant-reported Total Symptom Score
timeFrame: Day 1, Day 3 and Day 10
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: London
country: United Kingdom
facility: Imperial Clinical Research Facility, Imperial College London
Study officials:
affiliation: Imperial College London
name: Christopher Chiu
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Temple DS, Hegarty-Craver M, Furberg RD, Preble EA, Bergstrom E, Gardener Z, Dayananda P, Taylor L, Lemm NM, Papargyris L, McClain MT, Nicholson BP, Bowie A, Miggs M, Petzold E, Woods CW, Chiu C, Gilchrist KH. Wearable Sensor-Based Detection of Influenza in Presymptomatic and Asymptomatic Individuals. J Infect Dis. 2023 Apr 12;227(7):864-872. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiac262.