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
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.
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
Exploratory Objectives
Endpoints:
Primary Endpoint
--Incidence and severity of local and systemic adverse events (AEs) or serious adverse events (SAEs).
Secondary Endpoints
Exploratory Endpoints
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 →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.
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.
All of the following criteria must be fulfilled for a participant to undergo IBSM:
EXCLUSION CRITERIA:
A participant will be excluded from participating in this trial if any 1 of the following criteria is fulfilled:
For persons of :
Use of any of the following within the specified periods:
medical condition, physical examination findings, other clinically significant abnormal laboratory results, or past medical history including:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 ↗
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