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Active, not recruitingNCT04980560Updated Aug 26, 2024

Gut Microbiota Profile and Its Impact on Immunity Status in COVID-19 Vaccinated Cohorts

An observational study in COVID-19 Vaccination and Gut Microbiota, sponsored by Chinese University of Hong Kong. Active, not recruiting at 1 site in Hong Kong. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2024-08-26.

Sponsored by Chinese University of Hong Kong · Observational

Study type
Observational
Model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
215
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
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Study summary

This study aims to examine the association between gut microbiota composition and the magnitude and duration of immune response in subjects who have received different COVID-19 vaccines in Hong Kong and to identify the differences compared to those COVID-19 recovered subjects.

Read the detailed description

SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19, emerged as a new zoonotic pathogen of humans at the end of 2019 and rapidly developed into a global pandemic in March 2020. Over 106 million COVID-19 cases including 2.3 million deaths have been reported to the WHO as of February 9th 2021. Overall 80% of cases are mild/moderate or asymptomatic while 20% may develop severe or critical disease with respiratory failure requiring oxygen support and intensive care. As of 16 February 2021, 10789 cases have been confirmed in HK with 193 deaths while 10231 patients have been discharged from acute public hospitals with a mean length of stay of 15 days. Up to 16 Feb., 2021, there were 568 patients with COVID-19 have been managed at the Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH) with 12 deaths.

Studies showed that the quality of life of the patients who have recovered from COVID-19 was impaired. This situation is similar to some patients who suffered from SARS-CoV1 infection in 2003.

Natural infection by virus triggers an effective system immunity so that the host can resist or highly reduce the chance of re-infection.

In many cases, this protection can maintain a long period of time. On the other hand, vaccination, which aims to induce the similar immunity but in a controlled manner, presents only selected antigen(s) to the host through different delivery strategies. Lacking a normal virus replication cycle, vaccination can only partially mimic the infection process that makes the immunogenicity or durability of the vaccines sometimes not as effective as natural infection. This situation was also observed during the development of SARS and MERS vaccines. A number of studies focused on examining the humoral and cellular immunities from the COVID-19 patients during their acute stage or only few months after recovery. However, the long-term immunities (over a year) from the patients are not yet very clear.

The HKSAR government has procured 2 different types of COVID-19 vaccines for all the HK citizens that is one of the few regions/countries adopt this strategy. BioNTech mRNA vaccination programme will commence in early March 2021 and Sinovac inactivated whole virus vaccine will also be available soon for vaccination after formal approval recently. All these vaccines are so far only evaluated at their own designated population and countries and there is still lack of prospective study to "side-by-side" comparing the microbial biomarkers in the stool of different vaccines. Having different vaccines which will soon be available in Hong Kong, it would be of great interest to investigate and compare the microbial biomarkers in the stool of recovered COVID-19 patients versus those who have received different COVID-19 vaccines by setting up a 2-year longitudinal study.

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Conditions studied

  • COVID-19 Vaccination
  • Gut Microbiota

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03

In context

COVID-19

7,640 studies on the registry are indexed under COVID-19; 488 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 215 is below the median of 261 across 3,136 observational studies indexed under COVID-19.

Browse COVID-19 studies →

Lead sponsor

Chinese University of Hong Kong is the lead sponsor of 1,419 studies on the registry; 487 are open to participants now.

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

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes
Sampling method
Non-probability sample

Study population

Subjects will be recruited from different clinics in Prince of Wales Hospital, the CUHK Medical Centre, CUHK staff clinics, and community sources. Some subjects will be referred from other observational studies and some will be from any community source.

Inclusion criteria

  1. aged ≥ 18 years old; and
  2. have documented to have no previous COVID-19 infection; and
  3. will receive any type of COVID-19 vaccines; and
  4. agree to hand in study samples (stool and blood); and
  5. agree to sign the informed consent

Inclusion Criteria for COVID-19 convalescent (CON) cohort:

  1. aged ≥ 18 years old; and
  2. recovered from varying severity of COVID-19; and
  3. agree to hand in study samples (stool and blood); and
  4. agree to sign the informed consent

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • None
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Study design

Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
215 participants (actual)
Patient registry
No
Biospecimen retention
Samples with dna

Groups and cohorts

  • VAC cohort

    Subjects who will take COVID-19 vaccines

  • CON cohort

    Subjects who are COVID-19 survivors

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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. To identify and compare the microbiome profile and immune response

    To identify and compare the microbiome profile and immune response in subjects who have received different COVID-19 vaccines and in subjects who recovered from COVID-19 in Hong Kong

    Time frame: 3 months

Secondary outcomes

  1. SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody level

    SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody level in VAC cohort

    Time frame: across 24 months

  2. Compare the serum neutralization assay against pseudovirus and live virus, as well as the detection of IgM and IgG against receptor-binding domain [RBD] and S1

    Compare the serum neutralization assay against pseudovirus and live virus, as well as the detection of IgM and IgG against receptor-binding domain \[RBD\] and S1

    Time frame: across 24 months

  3. SARS-CoV-2 specific antibody

    Compare the levels of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibody

    Time frame: across 24 months

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Study locations

1 site
  • Prince of Wales Hospital
    Hong Kong, Hong Kong
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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Aug 26, 2024, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04980560
Lead sponsor
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Responsible party
Siew Chien NG (Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong) — Principal investigator
First posted
Jul 28, 2021
Start date
May 14, 2021
Primary completion
Jun 17, 2024
Completion
Dec 31, 2025 (estimated)
Last update
Aug 26, 2024

Study contacts

Siew Ng
principal investigator · CUHK-M&T

Oversight

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

Not currently enrolling

This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in Aug 2024. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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