ClinicalTrials.gg
Status unknownNCT01190371CATMAPUpdated Feb 23, 2018

Have Malaria Infections in Kenya Become Less Responsive to Artemisinin Treatment?

A Phase 4 interventional study of Artesunate in Malaria, sponsored by KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Collaborative Research Program. Status unknown at 3 sites in Kenya. Open to participants aged 6 Months to 10 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2018-02-23.

Sponsored by KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Collaborative Research Program · Phase 4, Interventional, and Treatment

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified Jul 2017), so the status shown — last known as Active, not recruiting — may be out of date.
Phase
Phase 4
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
175
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
6 Months to 10 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The purpose of this study is to determine whether P. falciparum infections in Kilifi District have developed tolerance to the artemisinin class of drugs.

Read the detailed description

Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACT) are the treatment of choice for episodes of uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria in all endemic countries. Rapid clearance of pathogenic blood stage malaria parasites by artemisinins is associated with swift recovery from mild malaria and reduced mortality from severe forms of the disease. In Kenya, and most malaria endemic sub-saharan Africa, artemether-lumefantrine has been introduced as first-line treatment in the public health care sector in 2006. Alarmingly, despite the short time since the introduction of ACTs artemisinin-resistant P. falciparum malaria has already emerged in South-East Asia, an area that has historically been the cradle of global spreads of drug-resistant malaria parasites.

In a previous study in Kilifi we have observed a significant drop in early response rates to treatment with two ACTs from 2005 to 2008. Conventional markers of potential changes in anti-parasitic host immunity, drug exposure, or baseline parasite biomass could not account for the observed time-dependent change in response rates.

This protocol aims to establish with reasonable confidence whether P. falciparum infections in Kilifi District have developed tolerance to the artemisinin class of drugs. We propose to study treatment response rates to an established 7-day regimen of artesunate alone in the treatment of uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria in children aged 6 months to 10 years, at the KEMRI study site in Pingilikani, Kilifi District, Kenya. The study will also assess (i) pharmacokinetic parameters of artesunate; (ii) ex vivo and in vitro chemosensitivity of parasite isolates to DHA; (iii) genetic determinants of altered in vivo and in vitro responses to DHA; and (iv) ex vivo expression profiles in normally vs. slowly responding P. falciparum infections before and during treatment.

02

Conditions studied

  • Malaria

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Keywords

  • Artemisinin tolerance
03

In context

Malaria

1,184 studies on the registry are indexed under Malaria; 79 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 175 is below the median of 252 across 937 interventional studies indexed under Malaria.

Browse Malaria studies →

Lead sponsor

KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Collaborative Research Program is the lead sponsor of 8 studies on the registry; none are open to participants now.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
6 Months to 10 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

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

  • aged between 6 months to 10 years, inclusive
  • mono-infection with P. falciparum detected by microscopy;
  • parasitaemia of 10,000-300,000/µl asexual forms;
  • presence of axillary temperature ≥ 37.5 °C or history of fever during the past 24 h;
  • ability to swallow oral medication;
  • ability and willingness to comply with the study protocol for the duration of the study and to comply with the study visit schedule; and
  • from a parent or guardian.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • presence of clinical danger signs: not able to drink or breast-feed, vomiting (>twice in 24 hours), recent history of convulsions (>1 in 24h), unconscious state, unable to sit or stand;
  • mixed or mono-infection with another Plasmodium species detected by microscopy;
  • presence of severe acute malnutrition defined as weight for height \<70% of the median NCHS/WHO (Appendix 2);
  • presence of febrile conditions due to diseases other than malaria (e.g. measles, acute lower respiratory tract infection, severe diarrhoea with dehydration) or other known underlying chronic or severe diseases (e.g. cardiac, renal and hepatic diseases, /AIDS);
  • regular medication, which may interfere with antimalarial pharmacokinetics or pharmacodynamic assessments (e.g., antibiotics with known antimalarial activity); and
  • history of reactions or to any of the medicine(s) being tested or used as alternative treatment(s).
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

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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.

Hypersensitivity

An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 4
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
175 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Other
    Artesunate

    Confirmation of artemisinin tolerance

    Drug: Artesunate

Interventions

  • Oral, once daily, 7-day regimen of artesunate 2mg/kg/day

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. The primary endpoint of this study will be the re-infection-adjusted day 28 failure rate

    Cure is defined as clearance of asexual P. falciparum parasitemia until day 7 and no recrudescence of asexual P. falciparum parasitemia until day 28. Re-infections are defined by genetic fingerprinting methods as newly emerging parasite clones during follow-up.

    Time frame: Day 0-28

Secondary outcomes

  1. The proportion of patients with positive malaria smears

    The number of patients still having parasites at these time points divided by the total treated will give an estimate of early cure rates or estimates of early treatment failure rates as a percentage.

    Time frame: 24hr, 48hr, 72hr

  2. The percentage reduction of parasitaemia from baseline

    These results will be used to compute the percentage of uncleared parasites so as to evaluate cases of early treatment failure according to the WHO criteria.

    Time frame: 24hr, 48hr, 72hr

  3. The mean time to parasite clearance

    Estimated by parametric survival analysis will give an estimate of how long the drug takes to clear parasites from the time of first dosing till the time of the first negative smear.

    Time frame: Up to day 7

  4. The mean time to fever clearance

    Estimated by parametric survival analysis mean time to fever clearance will be estimated to reflect the time it takes the the temperature to settle down consistently for at least 24 hours.

    Time frame: Up to day 7

  5. To estimate the rates for late clinical and parasitological failure rates

    We will estimate the cumulative incidence of success and failure rates at days 28 and 42, by both PCR-uncorrected and PCR-corrected for recrudescence

    Time frame: Days 28 and 42

07

Study locations

3 sites
  • Kadzinuni Dispensary
    Kadzinuni, Kilifi, Kenya
  • Junju Dispensary
    Kilifi, Kenya
  • Pingilikani Dispensary
    Kilifi, Kenya
08

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
Not marked actual or estimatedDates not marked actual or estimated

The record gives a start of Apr 2011, a primary completion of Nov 2011 and a completion of Dec 2018. It does not say whether these dates are actual or estimated.

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

Registered
Aug 24, 2010
First posted
Aug 27, 2010
Start
Apr 2011
Primary completionActual
Nov 2011
CompletionEst.
Dec 2018
Last update
Feb 23, 2018
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
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.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Feb 23, 2018, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01190371
Lead sponsor
KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Collaborative Research Program
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Aug 27, 2010
Start date
Apr 2011
Primary completion
Nov 2011
Completion
Dec 2018 (estimated)
Last update
Feb 23, 2018

Study contacts

Roma Chilengi
principal investigator · KEMRI Centre for Geographic Medicine Research (Coast), University of Oxford, England
Steffen Borrmann
principal investigator · KEMRI Centre for Geographic Medicine Research (Coast), Heidelberg University of Medicine, Germany

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is status unknown, as verified in Jul 2017. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Studies of the drug tested here: Artesunate

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