A Phase 1 interventional study of EBV gp350-ferritin vaccine with ALFQ adjuvant and EBV gH/gL/gp42-ferritin nanoparticle vaccine with ALFQ adjuvant in EBV, Epstein-Barr Virus Infection and Infectious Mononucleosis, sponsored by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 29 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-10-26.
Sponsored by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) · Phase 1, Interventional, and Other
Background:
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is the primary cause of infectious mononucleosis, commonly known as mono. EBV infects more than 90% of the world s population. Mono can be serious, and it can lead to severe illnesses like cancer and autoimmune diseases. Researchers want to test vaccines that may help prevent EBV and associated diseases.
Objective:
To test two EBV vaccines: EBV gH/gL/gp42-ferritin and EBV gp350-ferritin.
Eligibility:
Healthy EBV-negative or EBV-positive people aged 18 to 29.
Design:
Participants will be screened. They will have a physical examination. They will give blood and saliva samples.
They will receive 3 doses of the study vaccine as an injection in the shoulder muscle. They will get either one vaccine or a combination of both vaccines.
Participants will get their first dose of the vaccine at visit 1, the second dose about 30 days later, and the final dose about 90 days after that.
Participants will be given a memory aid so they can record any symptoms and side effects between visits. This can be done either on paper or online through a link that is emailed to them.
There are 6 required in-person visits. There are also 2 optional visits. In between the in-person visits are 7 telehealth visits or phone calls. Each visit may take up to 4 hours.
The study will last for about 17 months. Participants will have the option of staying in the study for an additional year.
Study Description:
This is a phase 1 study to evaluate the safety of a 3-dose vaccination regimen of an EBV gH/gL/gp42-ferritin nanoparticle vaccine with or without gp350-ferritin. Based on data reported in animal studies, our hypothesis is that this EBV vaccine will be safe. In addition, we hypothesize the vaccine will induce a potent immune response that neutralizes EBV infection of B cells and epithelial cells.
In an initial dose escalation phase comprised of 9 EBV-seropositive individuals, 3 individuals will receive 50 micrograms adjuvanted gH/gL/gp42-ferritin vaccine alone, then 3 individuals will receive 25 micrograms adjuvanted gH/gL/gp42-ferritin vaccine + 25 micrograms gp350-ferritin vaccine, then 3 individuals will receive 50 micrograms adjuvanted gH/gL/gp42-ferritin vaccine + 50 micrograms gp350-ferritin vaccine.
To distinguish reactogenicity and immunogenicity between the vaccine alone and the adjuvanted vaccine, we will include 3 individuals to
receive gH/gL/gp42-ferritin vaccine alone without adjuvant,. This information will be used to select dosing of both vaccine and adjuvant for the randomization phase. Pending results of dose escalation, the study will progress to the randomization phase. Twenty-four EBV-seropositive individuals will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive either 3 doses of 50 micrograms adjuvanted gH/gL/gp42-ferritin alone or 50 micrograms adjuvanted gH/gL/gp42-ferritin + gp350-ferritin nanoparticle. An additional 30 EBV-seronegative individuals will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive either 3 doses of adjuvanted 50 gH/gL/gp42-ferritin alone or adjuvanted 50 micrograms gH/gL/gp42-ferritin + gp350-ferritin. Administration of gH/gL/gp42-ferritin with or without EBV gp350-ferritin will be performed open-label.
If the combined dose of 50 micrograms adjuvanted gH/gL/gp42-ferritin vaccine + gp350-ferritin vaccine with or without adjuvant is not well tolerated during the dose escalation phase, the dosing of vaccine and/or adjuvant will be adjusted prior to starting the randomization phase.
In each group, the vaccine will be given at 0, 1, and 4 months, and participants will be followed until at least 12 months after the third dose of vaccine with an option to be followed for an additional year.
Objectives:
Primary objective: To determine the safety of an EBV gH/gL/gp42-ferritin nanoparticle vaccine with or without gp350-ferritin nanoparticle in seronegative and seropositive healthy adults.
Key secondary objective: To evaluate the immunogenicity via neutralization assay of an EBV gH/gL/gp42-ferritin nanoparticle vaccine with or without gp350-ferritin nanoparticle in seronegative and seropositive healthy adults.
Other Secondary:
To further evaluate the immunogenicity of the EBV gH/gL/gp42-ferritin nanoparticle vaccine with or without gp350-ferritin.
To determine whether the vaccine causes production of antibodies to Helicobacter pylori and/or human ferritin.
Endpoints:
Primary endpoints:
Key secondary endpoints:
Other secondary endpoints:
21 studies on the registry are indexed under Infectious Mononucleosis; 5 are open to participants now.
Browse Infectious Mononucleosis 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.
Compared within Infectious Mononucleosis, this study's primary condition as ClinicalTrials.gg classifies it; the registry's first condition term is Epstein-Barr Virus Infections. The counts are of registry records indexed under each term, refreshed daily. How we classify →
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.
To be eligible to participate in this study, an individual must meet all of the following criteria:
Contraceptive requirements: Because the effects of EBV gH/gL/gp42-FNP and EBV gp350-ferritin vaccines on the developing human fetus are unknown, sexually active participants of must agree to use highly effective contraception as outlined below before study entry and until 60 days after the last dose of vaccine. Participants of childbearing potential must have a negative pregnancy test before receiving each dose of the EBV gH/gL/gp42-FNP vaccine. During the course of the study, if a participant becomes pregnant or suspects they are pregnant, then they should inform the study staff and their primary care physician immediately.
Acceptable forms of contraception are:
Acceptable forms of contraception for participants who can impregnate a partner include one of the following:
Acceptable contraception for partners of childbearing potential of participants who can impregnate them include one of the following:
Laboratory Criteria within 30 days or less prior to enrollment:
EXCLUSION CRITERIA:
An individual who meets any of the following criteria will be excluded from participation in this study:
Participant has received any of the following:
Participant has any of the following:
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.
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.
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.
Able to have children. For women this usually means from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery; for men, unless permanently sterile. Read who the line is about — participants, women, men, or their partners.
Criteria about it usually ask 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.
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.
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
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.
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Reproductive potential
Able to have children. For women this usually means from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery; for men, unless permanently sterile. Read who the line is about — participants, women, men, or their partners.
Criteria about it usually ask 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.
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.
Hemoglobin (Hb)
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
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.
Platelets
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ALT and AST (liver enzymes)
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ULN (upper limit of normal)
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
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.
There will be an initial dose escalation phase comprised of 18-24 EBV seropositive individuals.
Biological: EBV gp350-ferritin vaccine with ALFQ adjuvant · Biological: EBV gH/gL/gp42-ferritin nanoparticle vaccine with ALFQ adjuvant
In the randomization phase, twenty-four EBV-seropositive individuals will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive either 3 doses of adjuvanted gH/gL/gp42-ferritin alone or adjuvanted gH/gL/gp42-ferritin + gp350-ferritin nanoparticle.
Biological: EBV gp350-ferritin vaccine with ALFQ adjuvant · Biological: EBV gH/gL/gp42-ferritin nanoparticle vaccine with ALFQ adjuvant
The adjuvanted gH/gL/gp42-ferritin nanoparticle vaccine is given with gp350-ferritin intramuscularly into the deltoid muscle at 0, 1, and 4 months.
The adjuvanted gH/gL/gp42-ferritin nanoparticle vaccine is given with gp350-ferritin intramuscularly into the deltoid muscle at 0, 1, and 4 months.
Local and systemic reactogenicity signs and symptoms during the 7-day period after each vaccination. Unsolicited AEs up to 30 days after each vaccination and SAEs through Day 150.
To determine the safety of an adjuvanted EBV gH/gL/gp42-ferritin nanoparticle vaccine with or without gp350-ferritin nanoparticle in seronegative and seropositive healthy adults.
Time frame: Through Day 150
Change in log10 antibody response to EBV from baseline to 30 days after the last dose of vaccine (Day 150) as measured by the B cell neutralization assay.
To evaluate the immunogenicity via neutralization assay of an EBV gH/gL/gp42-ferritin nanoparticle vaccine with or without gp350-ferritin nanoparticle in seronegative and seropositive healthy adults.
Time frame: Through Day 150
Change in log10 antibody response to EBV from baseline to 30 days after the last dose of vaccine (Day 150) as measured by the epithelial cell neutralization assay.
To further evaluate the immunogenicity of the adjuvanted EBV gH/gL/gp42-ferritin nanoparticle vaccine with or without gp350-ferritin.
Time frame: Through Day 150
ELISA-determined dilution for for antibodies to H. pylori and/or human ferritin on Day 0, Day 30, Day 60, and Day 150.
To determine whether the vaccine causes production of antibodies to H. pylori and/or human ferritin.
Time frame: Length of the study
Plan to share: Yes — We allow sharing of essentially all de-identified data per the data sharing plan.
Supporting information: Informed consent form, Clinical study report
Time frame: Data will be shared after conclusion of the trial and upon request by appropriate researchers.
Access criteria: Data will be shared in compliance with the NIH data sharing policy, the clinical protocol, and participant consent forms. Furthermore, sharing of data must also be approved by WRAIR.
Started May 2025 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Oct 2027, 28 months after the start.
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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