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MalariaPhase 2/3CloroquinaNCT02698748

Evaluating the Role of Chloroquine for Malaria Elimination

A Phase 2/3 study testing Chloroquine in people with Malaria, run by Centro de Investigacao em Saude de Manhica at 1 site in Mozambique.

Completed

Finished. The study has ended and is not enrolling. Results may be posted on the official record.

Official record
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Trial summary

One of the proposed ideas for malaria elimination includes the use of drugs to interrupt malaria transmission by exhausting the human reservoir of infection. Theoretically, mass treatment of an entire population with a very effective and rapid-acting drug (for instance an ACT), followed by the administration of an… Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 18 years and older, men only
Conditions the study is for
Malaria
What is being tested?
Chloroquine
Type of treatment
Pill or oral medicine
Could I receive a placebo?
Yes, some participants may receive a placebo
How many people
75 participants
Where
1 siteMozambique
Study dates
Jan 2015to Jun 2015
Phase
Phase 2/3
Are there results?
None posted in the registry

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 18 years and older
  • Men only
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Adult, Older adult

Who may be able to join

  • Male individuals
  • P. falciparum infection detected by microscopy (Minimum 250 parasites/microliter; Maximum 10.000parasites/microliter)
  • Ability to swallow oral medication
  • Ability and willingness to comply with the study protocol for the duration of the study and to comply with the study visit schedule; and
  • Informed consent from the participant individual

Who cannot join

  • Age <18 years
  • Female individuals
  • Axillary temperature >=37.5ºC
  • Presence of any other co-existing clinical condition that in the opinion of the recruiting physician would not allow the individual to be considered a "healthy" asymptomatic carrier
  • Regular medication which may interfere with antimalarial efficacy or antimalarial pharmacokinetics, such as Cotrimoxazole
  • History of hypersensitivity reactions or contraindications to CQ
  • Known HIV positive patients in treatment with antiretrovirals

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country.

Mozambique1 site
  • Centro de Investigaçao em Saude de Manhiça

    Manhiça, Maputo Province, 1902

Other trials in Mozambique

About this study

Official title: Evaluating the Potential Role of Chloroquine in Preventing Infections During Elimination Campaigns: A Randomized, Single-blind, Placebo-controlled Trial in Asymptomatic Mozambican Adults

One of the proposed ideas for malaria elimination includes the use of drugs to interrupt malaria transmission by exhausting the human reservoir of infection. Theoretically, mass treatment of an entire population with a very effective and rapid-acting drug (for instance an ACT), followed by the administration of an effective prophylactic regime during a minimum of four weeks, so as to outlast the typical development period of Plasmodium parasites in Anopheline mosquitoes, could achieve the same objective. In this respect, chloroquine (CQ) would be an appropriate candidate. This drug exhibits two conditions that make it attractive for elimination campaigns: 1) It has been demonstrated to have an excellent safety profile, allowing for its use in all age groups including pregnant women and children; and 2) Its relatively long elimination half life (t1/2=1-2 months) can provide a long post-treatment prophylactic effect. Recent evidence suggests that CQ sensitivity may be returning in places where discontinuation has reduced the drug pressure to the parasite populations. In countries such as Malawi, P. falciparum seems to have regained full sensitivity to CQ, and molecular markers of antiCQ resistance have nearly disappeared. While this does not support the reintroduction of CQ as first line therapy, it does suggest that, if proven sensitive in a given area, it could play a prophylactic role in malaria elimination strategies when used in combination with other drugs or tools. Thus, we intend to evaluate the potential role of chloroquine in preventing infections during elimination campaigns by performing a randomized, single-blind, placebo-controlled trial in asymptomatic Mozambican adults.

Choosing asymptomatic parasitaemic adult males from a malaria-endemic area as our study population introduces limited risks when administering a drug with an uncertain efficacy (47% efficacious in 2001-2002). In malaria-endemic areas, this age group has a remarkably low risk of developing severe disease (irrespective of clinical symptoms), and it is foreseeable that parasitemia may be well tolerated, and in certain cases, spontaneously cleared from the individual's blood as a result of the immune system. In the unlikely event of any clinical symptomatology appearing throughout the follow-up, individuals will be examined by a study clinician and treated immediately with the country's first-line malaria treatment (artemether-lumefantrine, Coartem ®).

Read the detailed description

This surveillance study is a two-arm prospective evaluation of parasitological responses to directly observed treatment with CQ (vs. placebo) for the clearing of asymptomatic parasitemia. People with asymptomatic P. falciparum parasitaemia, defined as the presence of a P. falciparum infection in the absence of any clinical symptomatology including fever, history of fever in the preceding 24 hours, malaise, fatigue, chills, or any other symptoms that may be derived from the malarial infection, who meet the study inclusion criteria will be enrolled, treated on site with CQ phosphate (25mg/Kg CQ base divided in three daily doses: 10mg/kg day 1 (usually 4 tablets); 10mg/kg day 2 (4 tablets) and 5mg/kg day 3 (2 tablets)) or placebo pills (same schedule, 4 tablets day one and two; and 2 tablets on day three), and monitored for 28 days. The follow-up will consist of a fixed schedule of check-up visits and corresponding clinical and laboratory examinations. On the basis of the results of these assessments, the patients will be classified as having therapeutic failure (early or late) or an adequate response. The proportion of patients experiencing therapeutic failure during the follow-up period will be used to estimate the efficacy of the study drug. PCR analysis will be used to distinguish between a true recrudescence due to treatment failure and episodes of reinfection.

Conditions
Malaria
Being tested
Chloroquine, Placebo
Keywords
Chloroquine, Malaria Elimination, P.falciparum, Clinical Trial, Mozambique, Adults
Medical subject headings
Malaria

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

  • ChloroquineDrug

    Also called Chloroquine Phosphate

    Chloroquine sulphate (Meriquine®; 250mg; 150 mg of chloroquine base; Baroda, India) will be administered at a total dose of 25 mg/kg (expressed as mg of CQ base per kg body weight, once daily during 3 consecutive days, following the schedule 10mg/kg Day 1; 10mg/kg day 2 and 5 mg/kg day 3).

  • PlaceboDrug

    Also called Placebo capsules

    Placebo Placebo pills will be standard placebo capsules filled with powder contents with no pharmaceutical activity. They will not be identical to the chloroquine tablets, so the study will not be double blind, but rather single blinded. Placebo tablets will be manufactured by the pharmaceutical department of the Hospital Clínic, in Barcelona, Spain

Study groups in NCT02698748
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
ChloroquineExperimentalChloroquine sulphate (Meriquine®; 250mg; 150 mg of chloroquine base; Baroda, India) will be administered at a total dose of 25 mg/kg (expressed as mg of CQ base per kg body weight, once daily during 3 consecutive days, following the schedule 10mg/kg Day 1; 10mg/kg day 2 and 5 mg/kg day 3).
Receives: Drug: Chloroquine
PlaceboPlacebo comparatorPlacebo pills will be standard placebo capsules filled with powder contents with no pharmaceutical activity. They will not be identical to the chloroquine tablets, so the study will not be double blind, but rather single blinded. Placebo tablets will be manufactured by the pharmaceutical department of the Hospital Clínic, in Barcelona, Spain.
Receives: Drug: Placebo

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Adequate parasitologic response (APR) to therapy

    the absence of parasitemia at the end of the trial's follow-up period (Day 28), regardless of axillary temperature, without having previously met any of the criteria for early and late treatment failure

    Measured: 28 days after first day of drug intake

Secondary outcomes (6)
  1. Early parasitologic failure

    Detection of parasites once the initial parasitemia has been cleared in the time period from day 1 to day 3 after first day of drug intake

    Measured: 1-3 days after first day of drug intake

  2. Late parasitologic failure

    The detection of parasites in patients having cleared their initial parasitemia anytime from day 4 to day 28

    Measured: 4-28 days after first day of drug intake

  3. Prevalence of chloroquine conferring pfcrt K76T mutation in pre-treatment infections

    Proportion of the isolates detected with this specific mutation among isolates at baseline (before study drug initiation)

    Measured: 0 days after first day of drug intake

  4. Rates of pre treatment pfcrt K76T mutation in cases of chloroquine treatment failure

    Proportion of the isolates detected with this specific mutation at baseline among cases with confirmed treatment failure those

    Measured: 0 days after first day of drug intake

  5. Rates of post treatment pfcrt K76T mutation in cases of chloroquine treatment failure

    Proportion of the isolates detected as new infections or recrudescent ones with this specific mutation

    Measured: 28 days after first day of drug intake

  6. Clearance time of parasitaemia

    time in hours until the clearance of parasitemia

    Measured: 28 days after first day of drug intake

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted4 Mar 2016 (estimated)
  2. Study startJan 2015
  3. Primary completionApr 2015
  4. Study completionJun 2015

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase 2/3
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Randomised
Intervention model
Parallel groups
Masking
Single blind
Who is masked
Participant
Enrolment
75 participants (actual)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT02698748
Sponsor's protocol ID
CNBS (173/CNBS/13)
Acronym
Cloroquina
Status last verified
Feb 2016
First submitted
13 Jan 2015
Last updated
7 Feb 2018
Results posted
No
Data monitoring committee
No
Individual data sharing
Undecided

Publications

  • Galatas B, Marti-Soler H, Nhamussua L, Cistero P, Aide P, Saute F, Menendez C, Rabinovich NR, Alonso PL, Bassat Q, Mayor A. Dynamics of Afebrile Plasmodium falciparum Infections in Mozambican Men. Clin Infect Dis. 2018 Sep 14;67(7):1045-1052. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciy219.

    PubMed 29546346
  • Galatas B, Nhamussua L, Candrinho B, Mabote L, Cistero P, Gupta H, Rabinovich R, Menendez C, Macete E, Saute F, Mayor A, Alonso P, Bassat Q, Aide P. In-Vivo Efficacy of Chloroquine to Clear Asymptomatic Infections in Mozambican Adults: A Randomized, Placebo-controlled Trial with Implications for Elimination Strategies. Sci Rep. 2017 May 2;7(1):1356. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-01365-4.

    PubMed 28465550

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

A Phase 2/3 study testing Chloroquine in people with Malaria, run by Centro de Investigacao em Saude de Manhica at 1 site in Mozambique.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 5 inclusion and 7 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 7 Feb 2018. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in Mozambique. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. Some participants in this study may receive a placebo. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

What does this combined phase mean?

Phase 2 studies give the treatment to a larger group to see whether it has the intended effect and to keep checking safety.

Phase 3 studies compare the treatment with the current standard treatment or a placebo in a large group, to confirm how well it works and watch for side effects.

Not every study follows the same path, and some studies (observational studies, device studies) have no phase.

Are results available for this study?

The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

Adequate parasitologic response (APR) to therapy (time frame: 28 days after first day of drug intake). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT02698748, which also lists 2 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 7 Feb 2018; AzTrials last refreshed its copy on 7 Nov 2026.

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