NCT04894422

Microbiome Analysis of Skin and Airway Samples and Effect of Face Masks

Effect of Face Masks on the Microbial Communities of the Skin and Upper Airways and the Optimalisation of Microbiome Analysis

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 100 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University Hospital, Antwerp · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The goal of this study is to optimize two methods for microbiome analysis of skin and upper airway samples (16S amplicon sequencing and Shotgun sequencing). In addition, the researchers will investigate whether there is an effect of wearing a face mask on the microbial communities of the skin and upper airways. The volunteers will self-collect swabs of the skin and upper airways (nose and/or throat). Bacterial DNA and/or total RNA will be isolated and the microbial communities will be investigated with 16S amplicon sequencing and shotgun metagenomic sequencing.

Conditions

• Healthy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Observational intervention	Voluntarily (not) wearing a face mask (cotton or surgical) for 4 hours, following the government's guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-03-15
• Primary completion: 2021-12-31
• Completion: 2023-03-15
• First posted: 2021-05-20
• Last updated: 2021-05-20

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Belgium