ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT06607003Updated Nov 10, 2026

Induced Blood-Stage Malaria in Healthy Malaria-Naive Adults to Assess the Safety and Infectivity of Plasmodium Vivax Challenge Agent and Evaluate Transmission in Mosquito Feeding Assays

A Phase 1 interventional study of P. vivax challenge agent derived from PvHMB-CCE001 in Malaria, sponsored by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 54 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-11-10.

Sponsored by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) · Phase 1, Interventional, and Basic science

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Nov 2024; still recruiting 1 year 11 months later.
Phase
Phase 1
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
300
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
18 Years to 54 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Background:

Malaria is a disease caused by parasites transmitted to people by mosquitoes. Around the world, there were 241 million cases and 627,000 deaths from malaria in 2020. Researchers are working to develop vaccines and treatments for this disease.

Objective:

To learn how malaria develops in people; how the body's immune system reacts to malaria; and how malaria spreads from people to mosquitoes.

Eligibility:

Healthy people in the Washington DC area, aged 18 to 54 years. They cannot live alone during parts of the study.

Design:

Participants will be infected with a parasite that causes malaria. The parasite will be in donated blood; it will be given through an IV.

Participants will likely develop symptoms within a week after the injection. Researchers will call daily to check on their health. After about 6 days, participants will come to the NIH clinic each day for blood tests.

Participants will check in to the NIH clinic around 10 days after the injection. They will stay in the clinic 3 to 6 days. They will have multiple blood tests every day.

Participants will be bitten by mosquitoes up to 4 times. Cups containing mosquitoes will be held against their skin for 15 minutes.

Participants will begin taking chloroquine close to the end of their clinic stay. Chloroquine is a pill taken by mouth once or twice a day for 3 days. It is FDA-approved to treat malaria.

Participants will have follow-up visits 1 and 3 weeks after discharge.

Read the detailed description

Study Description: Single-center, open-label, phase 1 study to characterize the safety and infectivity of Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) challenge agent for induced blood-stage malaria (IBSM) in malaria-naive participants at the NIH Clinical Center (NIHCC). Challenge agent derived from a cell bank of cryopreserved blood-stage P. vivax (PvHMB-CCE001) will be administered intravenously. A minimum of 2 participants will undergo IBSM to establish initial safety and infectivity of the challenge agent (pilot group). Additional participants, totaling 10 to 50 (main group), will be enrolled to further develop the model including to evaluate growth kinetics, transmission to mosquitoes using feeding assays and assess the host response to P. vivax infection. All participants who receive challenge agent will undergo antimalarial treatment. Qualification and characterization of the IBSM model, including transmission assays in malaria na(SqrRoot) ve,

unvaccinated participants, is a requisite goal in supporting future studies to evaluate stage-specific vaccines (transmission blocking

vaccines (TBVs) and blood stage vaccines (BSVs)) using the model.

Challenge agent derived from bank PvHMB-CCE001 will be assessed first in a pilot group of at least 2 participants, then subsequently in a main group with participants receiving inoculations in cohorts of up to 10 individuals based on logistical considerations including the capacity of clinic resources. The dose of the challenge agent may be adjusted if needed to generate reliable IBSM.

Objectives:

  • Primary Objective

    --To assess the safety of the P. vivax IBSM model following inoculation of healthy participants.

  • Secondary Objectives

    • To establish an appropriate challenge agent dose for use in P. vivax IBSM studies.
    • To evaluate transmission of P. vivax to vector mosquitoes in the IBSM model by mosquito feeding assays.
    • To establish a dataset that may be used as a historical control in future interventional IBSM transmission studies.
  • Exploratory Objectives

    • To further characterize blood and sexual stage parasite growth profiles following blood-stage P. vivax challenge and treatment.
    • To assess host responses to P. vivax IBSM.
    • To optimize mosquito infectivity in feeding assays, and study human to mosquito transmission and generate mosquito stages of the parasite.
    • To establish a supply of P. vivax infected blood.

Endpoints:

  • Primary Endpoint

    --Incidence and severity of local and systemic adverse events (AEs) or serious adverse events (SAEs).

  • Secondary Endpoints

    • A suitable dose of challenge agent that generates parasitemia in a reliable and timely manner as determined by the investigator.
    • Transmission of P. vivax to Anopheles spp. using mosquito feeding assays including direct feeding assays and/or membrane feeding assays as determined by the detection of oocysts following midgut dissection. Additional optional measures may include salivary gland dissection or detection by molecular methods.
    • Demonstration of transmission in mosquito feeding assays among a requisite number of participants.
  • Exploratory Endpoints

    • Asexual blood-stage and sexual stage parasite growth profiles by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and/or microscopy.
    • Antibody responses: Antibody levels elicited following IBSM as measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (e.g., antibodies against Pvs230, Pvs25, Pvs44/45 sexual stage antigens, or PvMSP3, MSP9, and AMA1 asexual stage antigens), cellular responses, biomarkers, and transcriptional profiling at various timepoints.
    • Collection of gametocyte-containing blood and study in mosquito transmission assays.
    • Collection of P. vivax-containing blood from participants.
02

Conditions studied

  • Malaria

Keywords

  • IBSM
  • Challenge
  • inoculation
  • Parasitemia
  • Mosquito Feeding Assay
  • Malaria Transmission
03

In context

Malaria

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

This study's planned enrollment of 300 is above the median of 252 across 937 interventional studies indexed under Malaria.

Browse Malaria 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

Ages eligible
18 Years to 54 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

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

All of the following criteria must be fulfilled for a participant to undergo IBSM:

  1. Age >=18 and \<=54 years.
  2. RBCs positive for Duffy antigen/chemokine receptor.
  3. Malaria comprehension exam passed prior to study activities.
  4. Suitable accommodation and reliable access to the NIHCC for the duration of the study in the opinion of the investigator.
  5. Persons of must be willing to use reliable from 28 days prior to challenge agent administration to the end of study.
  6. Signing of the form.
  7. Agreement to not live alone from challenge agent administration until the completion of antimalarial treatment.
  8. Agreement to long-term storage of study samples for future research.

Exclusion criteria

EXCLUSION CRITERIA:

A participant will be excluded from participating in this trial if any 1 of the following criteria is fulfilled:

  1. Planned travel to a P. vivax-endemic area during the study period (see https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/travelers/country_table/a.html).
  2. History of travel to or residence in a P. vivax malaria-endemic region for more than 2 weeks during the past 2 years.
  3. Prior confirmed P. vivax malaria diagnosis or clinical history consistent with likely P. vivax infection. At the investigator's discretion, participants may be enrolled if the exposure was remote, e.g., > 5 years ago.
  4. Poor peripheral venous access, at the discretion of the investigator.
  5. For persons of :

    1. Currently pregnant or breastfeeding, or planning on becoming pregnant or breastfeeding until the end of study.
    2. Rh blood group negative.
  6. Being a current or former study team member or clinical trial staff with direct involvement of the trial, or being an employee supervised by a study team member.
  7. Unwillingness to defer blood donations for at least 3 years.
  8. Use of any of the following within the specified periods:

    1. P. vivax vaccine within the last 2 years.
    2. Malaria chemoprophylaxis within 3 months of Day 0.
    3. Chronic systemic medications (>14 days) within 6 months (e.g., cytotoxic medications, adrenocorticotrophic hormone, or oral/parental equivalent to >0.5 mg/kg/day of prednisone). Corticosteroid nasal spray for allergic rhinitis and topical corticosteroids for mild, uncomplicated dermatitis are allowed.
    4. Prior receipt of packed red cells or other blood products or immunoglobulins within the previous 6 months.
    5. Systemic antibiotics or medications with potential antimalarial effects less than 28 days before Day 0 (e.g., clindamycin, chloroquine, benzodiazepines, tetracycline, azithromycin, or doxycycline).
    6. Investigational product or vaccine less than 28 days before Day 0.
    7. Receipt of any vaccination less than 28 days before Day 0.
    8. Current or planned use of medications known to significantly prolong the or otherwise interfere with study agents.
    9. Smoking more than 5 cigarettes or equivalent per day and unable to stop smoking for the duration of admission. Participants may smoke up to 5 cigarettes or equivalent per day for the rest of the study (by attestation).
    10. History of alcohol use disorder (exceptions may be made at the investigator's discretion if they have completed treatment or are otherwise currently abstinent) or refusal to agree to refrain from drinking from the day of the challenge agent inoculation until completion of their antimalarial course.
  9. medical condition, physical examination findings, other clinically significant abnormal laboratory results, or past medical history including:

    1. Immunodeficiency including asplenia or functional asplenia or significant disease.
    2. Retinal disease, visual field changes, psoriasis, porphyria, or known allergy to chloroquine or artemether/lumefantrine.
    3. Cardiac disease including >10% cardiovascular risk as determined by the non-laboratory method or an abnormal demonstrating a corrected QT interval by Fridericia's formula of >450 msec or other concerning arrhythmia.
    4. Any other medical condition that may have significant implications for current health status and participation in the study, in the opinion of the investigator.
  10. History of a severe reaction to arthropod bites, or history of anaphylaxis or severe unexpected allergy to any substance.
  11. Screening blood test or urinalysis laboratory parameters outside of local lab normal range (including infectious serologies). Participants may be included at the investigator's discretion for "not clinically significant" values outside of normal range.
  12. Any other finding that, in the judgment of the investigator, would interfere with, or serve as a to, protocol adherence, assessment of safety or reactogenicity, or a participant's ability to give , or increase the risk of having an adverse outcome from participating in the study.

Participants who are determined ineligible to participate for any of the reasons above may be rescreened for eligibility at a later time when the disqualifying condition may be resolved.

Terms in these criteria, in plain language(11)

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.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

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.

Investigational drug or device

A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.

It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.

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.

Corticosteroids (steroids)

Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.

Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.

QT and QTc

On an ECG, the QT interval is the time the heart’s lower chambers take to activate electrically and recover in each beat. QTc is that time adjusted for heart rate (QTcF by Fridericia’s formula, QTcB by Bazett’s). Some medicines lengthen it, and a long QTc can raise the risk of a dangerous heart rhythm.

The study may name a correction formula and a limit in milliseconds, often around 450–480.

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.

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.

ECG (electrocardiogram)

A recording of the heart’s electrical activity, taken with stickers on the chest, arms and legs. It takes a few minutes and does not hurt.

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 1
Primary purpose
Basic science
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
300 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    P. vivax challenge agent derived from PvHMB-CCE001 Main Arm

    Up to 50 participants will undergo IBSM to further establish safety of the P. vivax challenge agent derived from PvHMB-CCE001 and evaluate transmission to mosquitoes using feeding assays and assess the host response to P. vivax infection.

    Biological: P. vivax challenge agent derived from PvHMB-CCE001

  • Experimental
    P. vivax challenge agent derived from PvHMB-CCE001 Pilot Arm

    2 participants will undergo IBSM to establish the safety and infectivity of the P. vivax challenge agent derived from PvHMB-CCE001.

    Biological: P. vivax challenge agent derived from PvHMB-CCE001

Interventions

  • BiologicalP. vivax challenge agent derived from PvHMB-CCE001

    P. vivax challenge agent derived from PvHMB-CCE001 consists of infected and uninfected erythrocytes stabilized in glycerolyte. Challenge agent derived from this bank consists of thawed, washed, infected and uninfected erythrocytes suspended in injectable-grade normal saline.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. To assess the safety of the P. vivax IBSM model following inoculation of healthy participants.

    Incidence and severity of local and systemic AEs or SAEs.

    Time frame: Time of inoculation with the challenge agent until at least 21 days after inpatient discharge

Secondary outcomes

  1. To establish a dataset that may be used as a historical control in future interventional IBSM studies.

    Demonstration of transmission in mosquito feeding assays among a requisite number of participants.

    Time frame: From the time of inpatient admission to the time of discharge.

  2. To evaluate transmission of P. vivax to vector mosquitoes in the IBSM model by mosquito feeding assays.

    Transmission of P. vivax to Anopheles spp. using mosquito feeding assays including direct feeding assays and/or membrane feeding assays as determined by the detection of oocysts following midgut dissection. Additional optional measures may include salivary gland dissection or detection by molecular methods.

    Time frame: From the time of inpatient admission to the time of discharge.

  3. To establish an appropriate challenge agent dose for use in P. vivax IBSM studies.

    A suitable dose of challenge agent which generates parasitemia in a reliable and timely manner as determined by the investigator.

    Time frame: From the time of inoculation until the time of inpatient admission. Expected to be approximately day 9.

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • National Institutes of Health Clinical Center
    Bethesda, Maryland 20892, United States
    Recruiting
    • NIH Clinical Center Office of Patient Recruitment (OPR) · Contactccopr@nih.gov · 800-411-1222
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided — De-identified data in an NIH-funded or approved public repository.@@@- De-identified data in another public repository.@@@- Identified data in the Biomedical Translational Research Information System (automatic for activities in the CC).@@@- De-identified or identified data with approved outside collaborators under appropriate agreements.@@@- De-identified data in publications and/or public presentations.@@@Data will be shared at the time of or shortly after publication.

09

Timeline

3 registry updates since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Started Nov 2024 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Nov 2027, 36 months after the start.

Of 64 non-industry phase 1 interventional studies under Malaria, half reached primary completion within 13 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 7 and three quarters within 24. This study's planned 36 months is above that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 93 studies reached it within 13 months; a quarter within 7 and three quarters within 20.

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

Registered
Sep 20, 2024
First posted
Sep 23, 2024
StartActual
Nov 26, 2024
Primary completionEst.
Nov 26, 2027
CompletionEst.
Nov 26, 2027
Last update
Nov 10, 2026
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.
Minor edits
Nothing that changes what the study is or who can join. Edited: verification date and description
3 updates, last Nov 10, 2026
Show all 3 updates
  1. Nov 10, 2026
    Minor edits only
    + 1 other change: description
  2. Nov 9, 2026
    Minor edits only
    + 1 other change: description
  3. Oct 26, 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
NCT06607003
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Sep 23, 2024
Start date
Nov 26, 2024
Primary completion
Nov 26, 2027 (estimated)
Completion
Nov 26, 2027 (estimated)
Last update
Nov 10, 2026

Study contacts

Joel A Goldberg, M.D.
Contact
joel.goldberg@nih.gov
(240) 292-4138
Joel A Goldberg, M.D.
principal investigator · National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

Oversight

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

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