ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT00001355Updated Nov 9, 2026

Detection and Characterization of Host Defense Defects

An observational study in Immune Defects, sponsored by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 1 Month to 100 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-11-09.

Sponsored by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) · Observational

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Sep 1993; still recruiting 33 years 2 months later.
Updated Oct 27, 2026Eligibility revisedGo to Updates ↓
Study type
Observational
Model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
3,600
Ages
1 Month to 100 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This protocol is designed to evaluate selected patients with documented recurrent or unusual infections and their family members for clinical and laboratory correlates of immune abnormalities. It allows long term follow up of patients with host defense defects and permits the periodic study of their blood, urine, saliva, skin, other fluids, stool, vaginal specimens or wound drainage from such patients or their family members for medically indicated purposes and research studies related to understanding the genetic and biochemical bases of these diseases. This protocol may help provide patients and materials for the development of therapies for these diseases.

This study will:

  1. Determine the biochemical and genetic causes of inherited immune diseases affecting phagocytes (white blood cells that defend against bacterial and fungal infections)
  2. Try to develop better ways to diagnose and treat patients with these diseases, and to prevent, diagnose and treat their infections

Patients and family members may undergo the following procedures:

  • A personal and family medical history, physical examination and other procedures, which may include various blood tests; urinalysis; saliva collection; imaging studies such as chest X-ray, computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); and lung function studies, dental examination or eye examinations, if medically indicated.
  • Patients who have draining wounds will have fluid collected from these wounds for biochemical study.
  • Tissues removed as part of medical care, such as pieces of lung, liver, or teeth, or biopsies of these tissues will be studied.
  • Patients who have an immune problem that investigators wish to study further will be asked to return to NIH for follow-up visits at irregular intervals, but at least every 6 months. The visits will include an updated medical history, examination directed at the particular medical problem related to the immune disorder, follow-up of abnormal tests or treatment, and collection of blood, saliva, urine, other fluids, or wound fluid for study.
  • Patients may have genetic testing and must be willing to have specimens stored for future research.
  • Family members will have a medical history, saliva or urine collection, and chest X-ray or other imaging study, if medically indicated.
  • Normal volunteers who have had tissue biopsies or pieces of tissue removed as part of medical care, such as pieces of lung, liver, or teeth, will have these tissues studied.
  • NIH does not cover the cost of the initial screening visit for travel or lodging. A financial assessment may determine if the patient is eligible for financial assistance. This study does not enroll children under the age of 2.
  • Patients will be asked to obtain their medical records, previous test results, or imaging studies prior to the first visit.
Read the detailed description

This protocol is designed to evaluate selected patients with documented recurrent or unusual infections and their family members for clinical and in vitro correlates of immune abnormalities. It will also allow long term follow up of patients with host defense defects and permit us to periodically obtain blood, urine, saliva, skin, other excess biopsy tissue, breast milk, other fluids, stool, vaginal specimens or wound drainage from such patients or their family members for medically indicated purposes and research studies related to understanding the genetic and biochemical bases of these diseases. This protocol may help provide patients and materials for the development of therapies for these diseases in the future.

02

Conditions studied

  • Immune Defects

Keywords

  • Immune Deficiency
  • Infection
  • Phagocytes
  • Cytokines
  • Genetics
  • Natural History
03

In context

Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes

204 studies on the registry are indexed under Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes; 50 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 3,600 is above the median of 181 across 72 observational studies indexed under Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes.

Browse Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes studies →

Lead sponsor

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is the lead sponsor of 2,446 studies on the registry; 179 are open to participants now.

Of its 405 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 302 (75%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

The criteria were revised on the registry on Oct 27, 2026. See what changed

Ages eligible
1 Month to 100 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No
Sampling method
Non-probability sample

Study population

Participants known to have or suspected of having an immune defect and their blood relatives are eligible for enrollment.@@@

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

Patients known to have or suspected of having an immune defect significantly or primarily involving the phagocytes will be eligible for enrollment, as well as their blood relatives. Such syndromes include but are not limited to those listed above. Eligibility will not be limited based on sex, race, or disability. Patients or patient relatives must be over 1 month of age.

The patient and patient relative cohorts will include the following special populations:

  • Children: Children are included in this study because immune defects may present in early childhood, and early diagnosis or characterization may benefit subjects.
  • Decisionally impaired adults: Patients and patient relatives will be able to provide for themselves or, if they lack the capacity to provide informed consent, the study team will obtain consent from the legally authorized representative. Patients with underlying immune disorders, phenomena or severe infections may sometimes present with delirium, encephalopathy, or coma and are therefore unable to provide informed consent. Excluding patients who are unable to provide consent could adversely impact patient access to medical therapy at the NIH as well as adversely impact research recruitment. Excluding patients unable to provide consent would also essentially prohibit us from evaluating patients at higher risk for adverse outcomes and therefore skew our understanding of disease. Similarly, enrolled patient subjects who lose the ability to provide ongoing consent during study participation may continue in the study. The risks and benefits of participation for subjects unable to consent should be identical to those described for less vulnerable patients. The process for obtaining consent for these individuals is described below.

Healthy volunteers will be healthy adults between the age of 18 and 80 years of either sex, and they must be able to provide informed consents for themselves.

Exclusion criteria

EXCLUSION CRITERIA:

The presence of an acquired abnormality which leads to immune defects, such as , cytotoxic chemotherapy or , could be grounds for possible exclusion if, in the opinion of the investigator, the presence of such disease process interfered with evaluation.

Individuals with dementia that impairs obtaining are excluded from enrolling as healthy volunteers, although such subjects may enroll in the patient or relative cohorts if consent can be obtained as described below.

Terms in these criteria, in plain language(4)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Autoimmune disease

A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.

Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.

Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

05

Study design

Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
3,600 participants (estimated)

Groups and cohorts

  • Healthy Volunteer

    Healthy Volunteer to serve as controls

  • Patient

    Patients known to have or suspected of having an immune defect significantly or primarily involving the phagocytes

  • Patient Relatives

    blood relatives of patients

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Improved disease if either normalization or sustained improvement is observed.

    The primary endpoint of this study will be determination of a discrete diagnosis of an infecting agent, an underlying susceptibility trait, or both.

    Time frame: Complete withdrawal from steroid or sustained reduction to low dose antimicrobials or immune modulators.

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • National Institutes of Health Clinical Center
    Bethesda, Maryland 20892, United States
    Recruiting
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Donko A, Sharapova SO, Kabat J, Ganesan S, Hauck FH, Bergerson JRE, Marois L, Abbott J, Moshous D, Williams KW, Campbell N, Martin PL, Lagresle-Peyrou C, Trojan T, Kuzmenko NB, Deordieva EA, Raykina EV, Abers MS, Abolhassani H, Barlogis V, Milla C, Hall G, Mousallem T, Church J, Kapoor N, Cros G, Chapdelaine H, Franco-Jarava C, Lopez-Lerma I, Miano M, Leiding JW, Klein C, Stasia MJ, Fischer A, Hsiao KC, Martelius T, Seppanen MRJ, Barmettler S, Walter J, Masmas TN, Mukhina AA, Falcone EL, Kracker S, Shcherbina A, Holland SM, Leto TL, Hsu AP. Clinical and functional spectrum of RAC2-related immunodeficiency. Blood. 2024 Apr 11;143(15):1476-1487. doi: 10.1182/blood.2023022098. PubMed 38194689 ↗
  • Schindler MK, Pittaluga S, Enose-Akahata Y, Su HC, Rao VK, Rump A, Jacobson S, Cortese I, Reich DS, Uzel G. Haploinsufficiency of immune checkpoint receptor CTLA4 induces a distinct neuroinflammatory disorder. J Clin Invest. 2020 Oct 1;130(10):5551-5561. doi: 10.1172/JCI135947. PubMed 32955488 ↗
  • Burbelo PD, Browne SK, Sampaio EP, Giaccone G, Zaman R, Kristosturyan E, Rajan A, Ding L, Ching KH, Berman A, Oliveira JB, Hsu AP, Klimavicz CM, Iadarola MJ, Holland SM. Anti-cytokine autoantibodies are associated with opportunistic infection in patients with thymic neoplasia. Blood. 2010 Dec 2;116(23):4848-58. doi: 10.1182/blood-2010-05-286161. Epub 2010 Aug 17. PubMed 20716769 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Yes — We will share human data generated in this study for future research as follows:@@@@@@@@@@@@ (Summation)Identified data in the Biomedical Translational Research Information System (BTRIS, automatic for activities in the NIH CC).@@@@@@@@@@@@ (Summation)De-identified or identified data with approved outside collaborators under appropriate agreements.@@@@@@@@@@@@ (Summation)Data sharing may be complicated or limited in certain cases by contractual obligations or agreements with outside collaborators, such as cooperative research and development agreements, clinical trial agreements, other restraints, etc.

Supporting information: Statistical analysis plan

Time frame: IPD and supporting information will be available after completion of the study. No end date.

Access criteria: Data will be shared through:@@@@@@@@@@@@ (Summation)BTRIS (automatic for activities in the NIH CC).@@@@@@@@@@@@ (Summation)Approved outside collaborators under appropriate individual agreements.@@@@@@@@@@@@ (Summation)Publication and/or public presentations.@@@@@@@@@@@@Data might be shared before publication.@@@@@@@@@@@@The PI will review all requests for sharing data.

09

Timeline

3 registry updates since Sep 25, 2026

Started Sep 1993 (actual).

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Nov 3, 1999
First posted
Nov 4, 1999
StartActual
Sep 1, 1993
Last update
Nov 9, 2026
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
Eligibility
1 inclusion criterion edited
What changed in the criteria
Inclusion criteria
  • EditedDecisionally impaired adults: Patients and patient relatives will be able to provide informed consent for themselves or, if they lack the capacity to provide informed consent, the study team will obtain consent from the legally authorized representative. Patients with underlying immune disorders, autoimmune phenomena or severe infections may sometimes present with delirium, encephalopathy, or coma and are therefore unable to provide informed consent. Excluding patients who are unable to provide consent could adversely impact patient access to medical therapy at the NIH as well as adversely impact research recruitment. Excluding patients unable to provide consent would also essentially prohibit us from evaluating patients at higher risk for adverse outcomes and therefore skew our understanding of disease. Similarly, enrolled patient subjects who lose the ability to provide ongoing consent during study participation may continue in the study. The risks and benefits of participation for subjects unable to consent should be identical to those described for less vulnerable patients. The process for obtaining consent for these individuals is described below.
Oct 27, 2026
Show all 3 updates
  1. Nov 3, 2026
    Minor edits only
    + 1 other change: verification date
  2. Oct 27, 2026
    Eligibility 1 inclusion criterion edited
    What changed in the criteria
    Inclusion criteria
    • EditedDecisionally impaired adults: Patients and patient relatives will be able to provide informed consent for themselves or, if they lack the capacity to provide informed consent, the study team will obtain consent from the legally authorized representative. Patients with underlying immune disorders, autoimmune phenomena or severe infections may sometimes present with delirium, encephalopathy, or coma and are therefore unable to provide informed consent. Excluding patients who are unable to provide consent could adversely impact patient access to medical therapy at the NIH as well as adversely impact research recruitment. Excluding patients unable to provide consent would also essentially prohibit us from evaluating patients at higher risk for adverse outcomes and therefore skew our understanding of disease. Similarly, enrolled patient subjects who lose the ability to provide ongoing consent during study participation may continue in the study. The risks and benefits of participation for subjects unable to consent should be identical to those described for less vulnerable patients. The process for obtaining consent for these individuals is described below.
    + 1 other change: description
  3. Oct 5, 2026
    Minor edits only
    + 1 other change: verification date

From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT00001355
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Nov 4, 1999
Start date
Sep 1, 1993
Last update
Nov 9, 2026

Study contacts

Dawn E Shaw, R.N.
Contact
dawn.shaw2@nih.gov
(301) 401-4740
Steven M Holland, M.D.
Contact
sholland@mail.nih.gov
(301) 402-7684
Steven M Holland, M.D.
principal investigator · National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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