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CompletedNCT02894008Leish2aUpdated Jan 28, 2020

A Study of a New Leishmania Vaccine Candidate ChAd63-KH

A Phase 2 interventional study of ChAd63-KH in Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous, sponsored by University of York. Completed at 1 site in Sudan. Open to participants aged 12 Years to 50 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2020-01-28.

Sponsored by University of York · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
24
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
12 Years to 50 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This is a study to assess the safety of a new candidate Leishmania vaccine ChAd63-KH in patients with persistent post kala azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL).

This is a Phase II trial in patients with PKDL, to assess the safety and compare the humoral and cellular immune responses generated by the candidate vaccine in patients, and observe any clinical changes in the disease over a 42 day period following vaccination.

Study design: Eight adult volunteers will receive 1x10(10)vp and the subsequent eight volunteers will receive 7.5 x10(10)vp. Adolescents will be vaccinated with either 1x10(10)vp or 7.5 x10(10)vp, to be determined by evaluation of all available data after DSMB \& CTSC review.

Read the detailed description

This is a study to assess the safety of a new candidate Leishmania vaccine ChAd63-KH in patients with persistent post kala azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL). With 95% of cases occurring in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, the Sudan and Brazil, visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a disease of the poor. With an estimated 40,000 or more deaths annually, mostly children and young adults, VL ranks second only to malaria amongst parasitic infections for mortality, and as measured by DALYs lost, it ranks in the top ten infectious diseases globally. No effective vaccine has yet been developed for VL / PKDL despite significant research efforts.

The investigators have recently completed a successful first-in-human clinical trial of a new therapeutic vaccine for VL / PKDL (ChAd63-KH). This trial demonstrated safety of ChAd63-KH in healthy UK adult volunteers and immunogenicity against the two Leishmania antigens on par with that seen to other vaccine candidate antigens in clinical development for other diseases (e.g. malaria, HCV, Ebola). Following external peer review of the data generated during LEISH1, the investigators have been awarded further Wellcome Trust funding to progress this vaccine into Phase II clinical trials in patients with PKDL.

Study design: The first eight adult volunteers will receive 1x10(10)vp and, following DSMB and CTSC review, the subsequent eights adult volunteers will receive 7.5 x10(10)vp. Doses will be administered at a single time point. Adolescents will be vaccinated with either 1x10(10)vp or 7.5 x10(10)vp, to be determined by evaluation of all available data after DSMB \& CTSC review.

Objectives:

  1. To assess the safety of a new candidate Leishmania vaccine ChAd63- KH in patients with persistent PKDL.

    Secondary objectives:

  2. To compare the humoral and cellular immune responses generated by the candidate vaccine in patients with persistent PKDL.
  3. To observe any clinical changes in the cutaneous PKDL disease over a 42 day period following vaccination.
02

Conditions studied

  • Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous
03

In context

Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous

103 studies on the registry are indexed under Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous; 18 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 24 is below the median of 60 across 77 interventional studies indexed under Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous.

Browse Leishmaniasis, Cutaneous studies →

Lead sponsor

University of York is the lead sponsor of 11 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
12 Years to 50 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

  • Adults

The volunteer must be:

  • Aged 18 to 50 years on the day of screening
  • Females must be unmarried, single, or widowed
  • Willing and able to give written

Adolescents

  • Aged 12 to 17 years on the day of screening
  • Female adolescents must be unmarried
  • Written informed consent must be obtained from a parent

All Participants

  • Uncomplicated PKDL of > 6 month's duration
  • Available for the duration of the study
  • In otherwise good health as determined by medical history, physical examination, results of screening tests and the clinical judgment of a medically qualified Clinical Investigator
  • Negative for malaria on blood smear
  • Judged, in the opinion of a medically qualified Clinical Investigator, to be able and likely to comply with all study requirements as set out in the protocol
  • Willing to undergo screening for , and
  • For females only, willing to undergo urinary pregnancy tests on the day of screening, on the day of vaccination (prior to vaccination) and 7 and 42 days after vaccination.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

The volunteer may not enter the study if any of the following apply:

  • Has mucosal or conjunctival PKDL
  • Has had treatment for PKDL within 21 days
  • Is negative for antibodies in the RK39 strip test
  • Receipt of a within 60 days or other vaccine within 14 days of screening
  • Administration of immunoglobulins and/or any blood products within the three months preceding the planned administration of the vaccine candidate
  • History of allergic disease or reactions likely to be exacerbated by any component of the vaccine or a history of severe or multiple allergies to drugs or pharmaceutical agents
  • Any history of severe local or general reaction to vaccination as defined as

    • Local: extensive, indurated redness and swelling involving most of the antero-lateral thigh or the major circumference of the arm, not resolving within 72 hours
    • General: fever ≥ 39.5°C within 48 hours, anaphylaxis, bronchospasm, laryngeal oedema, collapse, convulsions or encephalopathy within 48 hours
  • Females - pregnancy, less than 12 weeks postpartum, lactating or willingness/intention to become pregnant during the study and for 3 months following vaccination.
  • Seropositive for surface antigen (HBsAg) or (antibodies to HCV)
  • Any abnormal finding on screening biochemistry or haematology blood tests or urinalysis
  • Any confirmed or suspected or immunodeficient state, including infection; asplenia; recurrent, severe infections and chronic (more than 14 days) immunosuppressant medication within the past 6 months
  • Tuberculosis, leprosy, or malnutrition
  • Any other significant disease, disorder or finding, which, in the opinion of a medically qualified Clinical Investigator, may either put the volunteer at risk because of participation in the study, or may influence the result of the study, or the volunteer's ability to participate in the study
  • Unlikely to comply with the study protocol
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(7)

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.

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.

Hepatitis B tests

Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.

Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.

Hepatitis C tests

Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.

After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.

Live vaccines

Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.

Clinically significant

Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
24 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    ChAd63- KH

    Single intramuscular dose of ChAd63-KH, 1 x10(10)vp or, following safety review, 7.5 x 10(10)vp in adults

    Drug: ChAd63-KH

  • Experimental
    ChAd63-KH

    Single intramuscular dose of ChAd63-KH, 1x10(10)vp or, following safety review, 7.5 x 10(10)vp in adolescents

    Drug: ChAd63-KH

Interventions

  • ChAd63-KH in adults and adolescents with persistent PKDL.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Safety

    Safety of a new candidate Leishmania vaccine in patients with persistent PKDL, assessed by the occurrence of biochemical, haematological and physiological responses which meet the criteria for adverse events/serious adverse events as described in the clinical trial protocol (v1.55)

    Time frame: 90 days

Secondary outcomes

  1. Cellular immune responses

    To compare the humoral and cellular immune responses generated by the candidate vaccine in patients with persistent PKDL.

    Time frame: 90 days

  2. Clinical changes in cutaneous PKDL disease

    To observe any clinical changes in the cutaneous PKDL disease over a 42 day period according to a clinical grading score following vaccination

    Time frame: 42 days following vaccination

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Centre for Tropical Medicine
    Doka, Gedarif, Sudan
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Younis BM, Osman M, Khalil EAG, Santoro F, Furini S, Wiggins R, Keding A, Carraro M, Musa AEA, Abdarahaman MAA, Mandefield L, Bland M, Aebischer T, Gabe R, Layton AM, Lacey CJN, Kaye PM, Musa AM. Safety and immunogenicity of ChAd63-KH vaccine in post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis patients in Sudan. Mol Ther. 2021 Jul 7;29(7):2366-2377. doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2021.03.020. Epub 2021 Mar 27. PubMed 33781913 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jan 28, 2020, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT02894008
Lead sponsor
University of York
Collaborators
University of Khartoum
Responsible party
Paul Kaye (Professor Paul Kaye, University of York) — Principal investigator
First posted
Sep 9, 2016
Start date
Nov 2016
Primary completion
Sep 30, 2019
Completion
Dec 31, 2019
Last update
Jan 28, 2020

Study contacts

Ahmed Musa, MBBS
principal investigator · University of Khartoum

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Jan 2020. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Studies of the drug tested here: CHAD63

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