Establishing a Controlled Human Infection Model of Bordetella pertussis
This study completed the challenge phase as of Spring, 2024 and is no longer enrolling.
A challenge to make a difference.
Current pertussis (whooping cough) vaccines have reduced case numbers, but the disease is still common and can be fatal for infants. As a first step towards developing a more effective vaccine, CCfV conducted a human challenge trial in Halifax to study how the disease progresses.
What is a human challenge trial?
Also known as controlled human infection models, human challenge trials are a type of clinical trial that intentionally exposes healthy, informed, and consenting adult volunteers to a virus or bacteria. This is done in a safe environment that prevents the spread of the illness and with around-the-clock healthcare support.
Challenge studies may either vaccinate participants to test a specific vaccine or simply expose participants to an infection to help researchers learn more about how an illness spreads and interacts with our immune system inside the body to make us sick.
Learn more about challenge studies with our blog.
What is pertussis?
Commonly called whooping cough, pertussis is a highly contagious infection of the bacteria Bordetella pertussis. The illness is named for the characteristic “whoop” noise caused by a sudden inhalation of air after a coughing fit that often occurs and is associated with the disease. There are 20–40 million cases of pertussis reported globally each year, 400,000 of those being fatal. Though illness in adults can be mild, symptoms can become severe in under-vaccinated and unvaccinated infants. Adults without full immunity can sometimes pass the infection on to more vulnerable people in their lives.
What do researchers want to find out?
Vaccines for pertussis have been available for decades, but vaccination and immunity from natural infections don’t protect a person for life.
There is limited understanding of pertussis’ ability to establish an infection, which pertussis antigens (disease-causing components) are the most effective targets for vaccines, or what type and amount of antibodies are needed to protect adults and children.
This study aims to help researchers further understand how pertussis infects the body, and answer other gaps in knowledge such as how the disease develops and the immune response to the infection.
Learn more about fading immunity to pertussis and how a challenge trial could help in our blog.
The main goal of the first study is to determine the amount of B. pertussis (dose) that results in only mild symptoms (similar to a common cold).