NCT06224062

Virus and Bronchial Epithelium in Children and the Elderly

Comparison of SARS-CoV-2, AdenoVIRus and Rhinovirus Infection of the Respiratory Epithelium in CHILdren vs. the eLDerly

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 200 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University Hospital, Bordeaux · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 17 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The objective of the VIRCHILLD project is to identify age-related modifications of the bronchial epithelium physiology that account for differences in the response and susceptibility to respiratory viruses. Epidemiology and cell-based data show that respiratory virus infections differentially affect children, adults or the elderly populations. The current worldwide pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 clearly highlighted this notion with a large part of the deaths occurring in the elderly population and very few deaths amongst children. This may be linked to a decreased transmission and/or viral load with SARS-CoV-2 in children compared to adults and elderly. Less in the public eye is the observation that other major respiratory virus targeting the bronchial epithelium (BE) such as rhinovirus (RV) and adenovirus (AdV) cause important clinical feature in children and have a much lower incidence in adults and the elderly populations, which is the opposite to the situation with SARS-CoV-2. Based on this remarkable discrepancy between respiratory viruses the investigators hypothesize that intrinsic age-controlled properties of the respiratory epithelium under resting physiological conditions determine virus susceptibility and virus propagation.

Detailed description

The objective of the VIRCHILLD project is to identify age-related modifications of the bronchial epithelium physiology able to explain differences in the response to respiratory viruses. Several epidemiological and cell-based data have demonstrated that respiratory virus infections differentially affect children, adults or the elderly populations. Perhaps, this difference has been put most notably into the spotlight by the current worldwide pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 with a large part of the deaths occurring in the elderly population whereas very few deaths amongst children have been recorded. According to some studies, this could be linked to a decreased transmission and/or viral load with SARS-CoV-2 in children compared to adults and elderly. What is less in the public eye is the observation that other major respiratory virus targeting the bronchial epithelium such as rhinovirus and adenovirus cause important clinical feature in children and have a much lower incidence in adults and the elderly populations, which is the opposite to the situation with SARS-CoV-2. Based on this remarkable discrepancy between respiratory viruses the investigators hypothesize that intrinsic age-controlled properties of the respiratory epithelium under resting physiological conditions determines virus susceptibility and virus propagation. Such hypothesis is supported by the literature and our own strong preliminary data. A highly complementing consortium composed of experts in lung physiology, pulmonary transcriptomic, respiratory viruses and ultrastructure analysis will address the question. The investigators will use three major respiratory pathogens (AdV, RV and SARS-CoV-2) to infect reconstituted fully functional respiratory epithelium obtained from children, adults and elderly and study parameters of virus infection and epithelial response. This project should highlight specific therapeutic targets against respiratory viruses with a high prevalence in children such as rhinovirus and adenoviruses to increase the therapeutic arsenal of clinician against those infections.

Conditions

• SARS-CoV-2

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BIOLOGICAL	SARS-CoV-2	Circulating strains of SARS-CoV-2 (including variants of concern) were already collected, cultured and purified. The Wuhan reference strain will be used in the VIRCHILLD study to infect cells.
BIOLOGICAL	Adenovirus (AdV)	Infection with C-type viruses (e.g. HAd-C5) using bronchial epithelium from adult donors
BIOLOGICAL	Rhinovirus	RV is a member of the picornaviridae family; small non-enveloped viruses with a single strand positive RNA genome protected by an icosahedral capsid. They are divided in more than 160 serotypes classed in subtype A, B and C. RV-A and RV-C infections will be used in the VIRCHILLD study
BIOLOGICAL	No Intervention	no infection

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-10-28
• Primary completion: 2025-04-28
• Completion: 2025-04-28
• First posted: 2024-01-25
• Last updated: 2024-01-25

Locations

1 site across 1 country: France