The MEMRI:COVID study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Modulating Emerging Memory Responses to Immunisation: COVID
IRAS ID
295283
Contact name
Eoin McKinney
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and University of Cambridge
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
We have used a computational biology approach to find medicines already in routine use that can boost the development of immune memory following infection or vaccination. This work has shown that a low dose of a drug normally used to treat epilepsy (sodium valproate) can increase immune memory following immunisation, improving cells' ability to respond if/when the infection is encountered for real. The work has so far used cells from healthy volunteers and animal models of infection and vaccination. However, because the drugs we have identified are routinely used for other purposes with plentiful experience on their safety, there is great potential for this work to translate quickly into clinical practice allowing the drug to be used to boost vaccines in people.
Now, working towards this goal, we aim to test this approach in a 'proof of concept' experimental medicine study in which healthy volunteers receive low dose sodium valproate for 7 days following vaccination against SARS-CoV-2.
This is not yet a clinical trial that will test whether we can make vaccination more effective but a research study that will help us understand how best to perform that trial later. We must first determine whether the drug can boost immune memory when given to people and also understand what other factors influence that response.
Vaccine responses are known to depend on both age and the extent of pre-existing immune memory (as people may have had previous vaccines or had similar virus infections before). The information obtained from this study will be used to design the best clinical trial possible afterwards.REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/HRA/0416
Date of REC Opinion
3 Mar 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion