Oxford challenge trial assessing coronavirus reinfection, immune responses

The University of Oxford announced Monday it launched a challenge trial intentionally re-infecting participants with the novel coronavirus to better understand how the immune system mounts a response the second time around, and potentially pave the way for improved vaccines and treatments.

"The information from this work will allow us to design better vaccines and treatments, and also to understand if people are protected after having COVID, and for how long," Helen McShane, professor of vaccinology at the Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford and chief investigator on the study, said in part in the release. The study was divided into two phases; the first establishing the lowest dose of virus to initiate virus replication, but only result in "little or no symptoms" in up to 64 healthy adults aged 18 to 30 who have fully recovered from a previous coronavirus infection. The second phase, planned to launch this summer, will see all participants infected with the established dose from the prior phase.