Objective
- To demonstrate that therapeutic vaccination can effectively and safely induce a total cure of the disease in patients with chronic hepatitis B.
- To demo ,strate the efficacy of therapeutic hepatitis B vaccination in larger number of patients of chronic hepatitis B patients in different populations
- To demonstrate the feasibility of the concept of therapeutic vaccines for chronic infectious diseases.
Current therapies for chronic hepatitis B (CHB) have limited efficacy with a poor safety profile and comes at a very high cost. CHB is not due a direct cytopathogenic effect of the virus but rather to a chronic and inadequate immune response against the infected hepatocytes together with a state of immune tolerance towards the virus. The role of a therapeutic vaccine is to revert the state cf tolerance and induce a strong and specific immune response against the infected hepatocytes. To achieve this, a vaccine formulation containing 3 recombinant hepatitis B surface antigens (S + preS1 + preS2) together with potent ans specific adjuvants which stimulate mainly the Th1-type cellular immune response and cytotoxic T-cell activity will be used.
Clinical studies to run in parallel in different countries wiil enrol the following adult patient populations: patients with HBeAg positive CHB, patients with HBeAg negative CHB (pre core mutant pattern) and patients with compensa.ed cirrhosis due to hepatitis B infection. After a 3 to 6-month baseline period, the patients will be randomly allocated to receive several doses of either vaccine or placebo. They will followed up to one year after completion of therapy to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. Efficacy endpoint wili be assessed on the ability to induce the elimination of serum HBV-DNA and/or the disappearance of HBeAg and the appearance of anti-HBe antibodies. Other secondary endpoint to be evaluated will be the efficacy o, the vaccine to normalise ALT/AST levels in patients and the induction of anti-HBs antibodies. Safety will be assessed by an active monitoring of adverse and serious adverse events, local and general clinical signs and symptoms after vaccination and haematological and hepatic function parameters
The wider use of an effective and a safer therapeutic hepatitis B vaccine wili decrease the risk of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma in patients. The size of virus reservoir and the incidence of the hepatitis B disease will also be reduced.
Fields of science
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologyvirology
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesinfectious diseasesDNA viruseshepatitis B
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineimmunology
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsvaccines
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinehepatology
Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
1330 Rixensart
Belgium
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Participants (11)
3584 CX Utrecht
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10126 Torino
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30623 Hannover
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08036 Barcelona
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2650 Hvidovre
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08035 Barcelona
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9000 Gent
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11527 Athens
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416 85 Göteborg
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1200 Bruxelles
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69288 Lyon
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