Assessing the Impact of Unnecessary Antibiotic Treatment on the Development of Appropriate Adaptive Immune Responses in Malnourished Bangladeshi Infants

NCT07615842 | Not Yet Recruiting Phase 1

• 2 other identifiers: 20388University of Virginia
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 150
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The investigators are examining the role of circulating T follicular helper (Tfh) cells in the induction of the antibody responses. The investigators hypothesize that Tfh cell activation is impaired in Bangladeshi children and that this activation failure is associated with a history of antibiotic use. The results of the investigators' preliminary studies suggest that antibiotic treatment could have a detrimental effect on the development of an appropriate adaptive immune response against Cryptosporidium. Antibiotic treatment for children with cryptosporidiosis, rotavirus and adenovirus 40/41is not currently recommended (supportive therapy only), although usually given to children in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This study will randomly assign children with diarrhea due to Cryptosporidium, rotavirus or adenovirus 40/41 to two groups. Supportive treatment would be provided in both groups, but in group #1, antibiotic treatment would be withheld while group #2 will receive usual care which normally will include antibiotic treatment. The investigators will monitor the children for one year to measure T follicular helper function, antibody production, and reinfection.

Conditions

Antibiotic Resistance Prevention

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• T follicular helper activation

  1 year

Secondary Outcomes (3)

• Antibodies to pathogens

  1 year

• Reinfection

  1 year

• Measures of Malnutrition

  1 year

Study Arms (2)

Usual Care

OTHER

Children with cryptosporidium, rotavirus and/or adenoviruses 40/41 will receive usual care provided by icddr,b, which includes standard of care, supportive treatment and azithromycin.

Drug: Azithromycin

Standard of Care

NO INTERVENTION

Children with cryptosporidium, rotavirus, and/or adenovirus 40/41 will not receive azithromycin, but will be treated by standard of care and supportive treatment.

Interventions

Azithromycin DRUG

Antibiotic treatment (azithroymicin) for children with cryptosporidiosis is not currently recommended (supportive therapy only). The proposed modification to this study would involve randomly assigning the Cryptosporidium-positive children to two groups. Supportive treatment would be provided in both groups, but in one group, antibiotic treatment would be withheld. All children would continue to be monitored in accordance with standard protocols, and antibiotic treatment would be provided if deemed clinically necessary.

Usual Care

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 6 Months - 48 Months
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• presenting with diarrheal symptoms
• age under 1 year
• enrolled in study NCT02764918

You may not qualify if:

• unwilling to give blood and stool samples

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Virginia: lead
• International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Icddr,B

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Location

Related Publications (18)

• Donowitz JR, Drew J, Taniuchi M, Platts-Mills JA, Alam M, Ferdous T, Shama T, Islam MO, Kabir M, Nayak U, Haque R, Petri WA. Diarrheal Pathogens Associated With Growth and Neurodevelopment. Clin Infect Dis. 2021 Aug 2;73(3):e683-e691. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa1938.

  PMID: 33399861 BACKGROUND

• McCowin SE, Moreau GB, Haque R, Noble JA, McDevitt SL, Donowitz JR, Alam MM, Kirkpatrick BD, Petri WA, Marie C. HLA class I and II associations with common enteric pathogens in the first year of life. EBioMedicine. 2021 May;67:103346. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103346. Epub 2021 Apr 25.

  PMID: 33910121 BACKGROUND

• Sullivan EF, Xie W, Conte S, Richards JE, Shama T, Haque R, Petri WA, Nelson CA. Neural correlates of inhibitory control and associations with cognitive outcomes in Bangladeshi children exposed to early adversities. Dev Sci. 2022 Sep;25(5):e13245. doi: 10.1111/desc.13245. Epub 2022 Feb 22.

  PMID: 35192240 BACKGROUND

• Kabir M, Alam M, Nayak U, Arju T, Hossain B, Tarannum R, Khatun A, White JA, Ma JZ, Haque R, Petri WA Jr, Gilchrist CA. Nonsterile immunity to cryptosporidiosis in infants is associated with mucosal IgA against the sporozoite and protection from malnutrition. PLoS Pathog. 2021 Jun 28;17(6):e1009445. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009445. eCollection 2021 Jun.

  PMID: 34181697 BACKGROUND

• Leslie JL, Weddle E, Yum LK, Lin Y, Jenior ML, Lee B, Ma JZ, Kirkpatrick BD, Nayak U, Platts-Mills JA, Agaisse HF, Haque R, Petri WA. Lewis Blood-group Antigens Are Associated With Altered Susceptibility to Shigellosis. Clin Infect Dis. 2021 Jun 1;72(11):e868-e871. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa1409.

  PMID: 32940644 BACKGROUND

• Deichsel EL, Hillesland HK, Gilchrist CA, Naulikha JM, McGrath CJ, Van Voorhis WC, Rwigi D, Singa BO, Walson JL, Pavlinac PB. Prevalence and Correlates of Cryptosporidium Infections in Kenyan Children With Diarrhea and Their Primary Caregivers. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2020 Oct 31;7(12):ofaa533. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofaa533. eCollection 2020 Dec.

  PMID: 33335937 BACKGROUND

• Steiner KL, Kabir M, Hossain B, Gilchrist CA, Ma JZ, Ahmed T, Faruque ASG, Haque R, Petri WA. Delayed Time to Cryptosporidiosis in Bangladeshi Children is Associated with Greater Fecal IgA against Two Sporozoite-Expressed Antigens. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2021 Jan;104(1):229-232. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.20-0657.

  PMID: 33078702 BACKGROUND

• Munday RM, Haque R, Wojcik GL, Korpe P, Nayak U, Kirkpatrick BD, Petri WA Jr, Duggal P. Genome-Wide Association Studies of Diarrhea Frequency and Duration in the First Year of Life in Bangladeshi Infants. J Infect Dis. 2023 Oct 18;228(8):979-989. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiad068.

  PMID: 36967705 BACKGROUND

• Williams FB, Kader MA, Dickson DM, Colgate ER, Alam M, Haque R, Petri WA Jr, Kirkpatrick BD, Lee B. Maternal Breast Milk Secretor Phenotype Does Not Affect Infant Susceptibility to Rotavirus Diarrhea. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2023 Jun 7;10(6):ofad299. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofad299. eCollection 2023 Jun.

  PMID: 37333724 BACKGROUND

• Gilchrist CA, Campo JJ, Pablo JV, Ma JZ, Teng A, Oberai A, Shandling AD, Alam M, Kabir M, Faruque ASG, Haque R, Petri WA Jr. Specific Cryptosporidium antigens associate with reinfection immunity and protection from cryptosporidiosis. J Clin Invest. 2023 Aug 15;133(16):e166814. doi: 10.1172/JCI166814.

  PMID: 37347553 BACKGROUND

• Butler-Laporte G, Auckland K, Noor Z, Kabir M, Alam M, Carstensen T, Wojcik GL, Chong AY, Pomilla C, Noble JA, McDevitt SL, Smits G, Wareing S, van der Klis FR, Jeffery K, Kirkpatrick BD, Sirima S, Madhi S, Elliott A, Richards JB, Hill AV, Duggal P; PROVIDE authors, Cryptosporidiosis Birth Cohort authors; Sandhu MS, Haque R, Petri WA Jr, Mentzer AJ. Targeting hepatitis B vaccine escape using immunogenetics in Bangladeshi infants. medRxiv [Preprint]. 2023 Jun 29:2023.06.26.23291885. doi: 10.1101/2023.06.26.23291885.

  PMID: 37425840 BACKGROUND

• Carey M, Arju T, Cotton JA, Alam M, Kabir M, Faruque ASG, Haque R, Petri WA Jr, Gilchrist CA. Genomic Heterogeneity of Cryptosporidium parvum Isolates From Children in Bangladesh: Implications for Parasite Biology and Human Infection. J Infect Dis. 2023 Nov 2;228(9):1292-1298. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiad257.

  PMID: 37832036 BACKGROUND

• Kupkova K, Shetty SJ, Pray-Grant MG, Grant PA, Haque R, Petri WA Jr, Auble DT. Globally elevated levels of histone H3 lysine 9 trimethylation in early infancy are associated with poor growth trajectory in Bangladeshi children. Clin Epigenetics. 2023 Aug 11;15(1):129. doi: 10.1186/s13148-023-01548-z.

  PMID: 37568218 BACKGROUND

• Chen L, Munday RM, Haque R, Duchen D, Nayak U, Korpe P, Mentzer AJ, Kirkpatrick BD, Wojcik GL, Petri WA Jr, Duggal P. Genetic Susceptibility to Astrovirus Diarrhea in Bangladeshi Infants. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2024 Mar 6;11(3):ofae045. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofae045. eCollection 2024 Mar.

  PMID: 38524222 BACKGROUND

• Fahim SM, Donowitz JR, Smirnova E, Jan NJ, Das S, Mahfuz M, Gaffar SMA, Petri WA Jr, Marie C, Ahmed T. Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth is associated with increased Campylobacter and epithelial injury in duodenal biopsies of Bangladeshi children. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2024 Mar 27;18(3):e0012023. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0012023. eCollection 2024 Mar.

  PMID: 38536881 BACKGROUND

• Campo JJ, Seppo AE, Randall AZ, Pablo J, Hung C, Teng A, Shandling AD, Truong J, Oberai A, Miller J, Iqbal NT, Penataro Yori P, Kukkonen AK, Kuitunen M, Guterman LB, Morris SK, Pell LG, Al Mahmud A, Ramakrishan G, Heinz E, Kirkpatrick BD, Faruque AS, Haque R, Looney RJ, Kosek MN, Savilahti E, Omer SB, Roth DE, Petri WA Jr, Jarvinen KM. Human milk antibodies to global pathogens reveal geographic and interindividual variations in IgA and IgG. J Clin Invest. 2024 Jun 11;134(15):e168789. doi: 10.1172/JCI168789.

  PMID: 39087469 BACKGROUND

• Surani Z, Turesky TK, Sullivan E, Shama T, Haque R, Islam N, Hafiz Kakon S, Yu X, Petri WA, Nelson C 3rd, Gaab N. Examining the relationship between psychosocial adversity and inhibitory control: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of children growing up in extreme poverty. J Exp Child Psychol. 2025 Jan;249:106072. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2024.106072. Epub 2024 Sep 23.

  PMID: 39316885 BACKGROUND

• Van Fossen DM, Cho H, Wagar LE, Ma JZ, Parsonnet J, Haque R, Davis MM, Petri WA. Influence of environmental exposures on T follicular helper cell function and implications on immunity: a comparison of Bangladeshi and American children. mBio. 2025 Apr 9;16(4):e0398024. doi: 10.1128/mbio.03980-24. Epub 2025 Mar 10.

  PMID: 40062864 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Interventions

Azithromycin

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Erythromycin; Macrolides; Polyketides; Lactones; Organic Chemicals

Central Study Contacts

Mary Young

CONTACT

4348061737; mky4n@virginia.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: phase 1
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, CARE PROVIDER
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principle Investigator

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: May 22, 2026
• First Posted: May 29, 2026
• Study Start: June 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): June 1, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): June 1, 2028
• Last Updated: June 1, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-05

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share

Locations

BA (1)