People are to be sent from Oxford to the Netherlands to be deliberately infected with a form of malaria so scientists can study its effects.
Plasmodium vivax is a type of malaria that can remain dormant in the liver.
It can reactivate months or even years after a person was first infected, causing relapsing infections.
Scientists from the Oxford Vaccine Group want to understand more about this relapsing infection in the months after a person is initially infected through the bite of a mosquito.
In order to do so, they are sending five healthy people to be bitten by infected mosquitoes at a lab in the Netherlands.
They will then return to Oxford where they can be monitored before being treated to stop the potential relapses.
Human challenge studies involve researchers deliberately exposing healthy volunteers to infectious diseases.
This allows them to monitor how the body responds to the disease.
Professor Angela Minassian, chief investigator for the trial from the University of Oxford, said: “This proof-of-concept study is the first of its kind to safely introduce relapsing vivax malaria infections in healthy volunteers under controlled research conditions.
“By doing so, we aim to answer key questions about relapses and how the immune system responds to them.
“We know that more than 80% of vivax malaria globally is due to relapsing infections and they cause significant illness in both adults and children in many parts of the world.
“Our work, if successful, aims to provide a model for testing novel vaccines or drugs which can eliminate it from the liver and stop relapses altogether.
“This could transform how we combat this challenging disease.”
The new study, a “malaria challenge study”, has been launched by the University of Oxford in partnership with the Draper Lab with a view to transform understanding about this form of malaria.
The study, known as BIO-006, will see five healthy people aged 18 to 45 travel to the Radboud University Medical Centre in Nijmegen, to be bitten by mosquitoes carrying the Plasmodium vivax parasite.
Following the mosquito bite, participants will return to the Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine in Oxford.
Those involved with the study will be monitored daily for the first six days over the phone and in person from day seven onwards.
When malaria is detected in the blood, people will be “promptly” given anti-malarial medication.
But this treatment will not eliminate dormant parasites in the liver.
This means that scientists can study relapsing malaria infections over the next six months.
During this period, people involved with the study will have fortnightly check-ups and will have 24/7 medical support to address any symptoms which suggest a relapse.
Any relapse infections will be treated with anti-malarial medication.
At the end of the six-month period, all those involved in the study will be given anti-malarial tablets with an additional medication called Primaquine that clears dormant parasites from the liver.
They will then be followed up for five more years to monitor for any unexpected relapses.
– For more information about the study visit: www.ovg.ox.ac.uk/studies/bio006