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Infertility of Uterine OriginERA-niMICNCT03330444

Development of a Microbiome Non-invasive Diagnosis Tool

An observational study of Infertility of Uterine Origin, run by Igenomix at 13 sites in 8 countries.

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

Although the endometrium tissue has been traditionally considered free of bacteria, recent studies have documented the presence of an endometrial microbiome. In a pilot study conducted by our research team, the microorganisms present in the endometrium were analysed in samples of endometrial fluid (EF) using next… Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 18 to 50 years, women onlyHealthy volunteers can take part
Conditions the study is for
Infertility of Uterine Origin
What is being tested?
Endometrial biopsy and endometrial fluid collection
Type of treatment
Surgery or procedure
How many people
452 participants
Where
13 sitesin 8 countries
Study dates
4 Aug 2017to 25 Jun 2020
Phase
Observational
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 to 50 years
  • Women only
  • Healthy volunteers accepted
  • Adult

Study population: ART patients, with indication of diagnosis of endometrial receptivity by ERA that will receive embryo transfer with frozen blastocyst stage embryos (day 5/day 6).

Who may be able to join

  • Patients in In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) / IntraCytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) or OVODON with indication of ERA, with or without Preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) indication, which receive embryo transfer with frozen blastocyst stage embryos (day 5/day 6) on a hormone replacement therapy (HRT) cycle.
  • Maternal Age: ≤40 years (IVF/ICSI patients)
  • Maternal Age: ≤50 years (OVODONATION patients)
  • Body Mass Index (BMI): 18.5 - 30 kg / m2 (both inclusive)
  • Negative serological tests for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), Rapid plasma reagin (RPR) for syphilis
  • Women with regular menstrual formula (3-4 / 26- 35 days)
  • Sperm concentration: > 2 million spermatozoa/ml

Who cannot join

  • Patients who are Intra-Uterine Device (IUD) carriers in the last 3 months
  • Patients who have taken prescribed antibiotics in the last 3 months before the sample collection. (May be accepted those cases where the patient has received previous prophylactic antibiotics to ovarian puncture in the stimulation cycle, according to the standard clinical practice of the centre. The administration of this antibiotic should be at least 1 month before the sample collection).
  • Adnexal or uterine pathologies as uterine malformations that may affect the implantation rate (e.g: Polyps, intramural myoma ≥ 4cm or submucosal, septum, hydrosalpinx, etc). Patients affected (before or after of their inclusion) with any of the previously described pathologies, will be allowed to participate in this study as long as they are surgically treated before any study procedure.
  • Existence of bacterial, fungal or viral infections severe or uncontrolled that, in the opinion of the principal investigator, could interfere with the patient's participation in the study or the assessments of the study results.
  • Any illness or medical condition that is unstable or can put patient safety at risk and compliance in the study.

Trial locations and contacts

13 sites in 8 countries.

13 sites in 8 countries

United States4 sites
  • Dominion Fertility

    Arlington, Washington, 22203

  • Missouri Center for Reproductive Medicine (MCRM Fertility)

    Chesterfield, Missouri, 63005

  • IVF Florida

    Margate, Florida, 33063

  • RMA Connecticut

    Norwalk, Connecticut, 06861

Other trials in United States

Argentina2 sites
  • Pregna Medicina Reproductiva

    Buenos Aires, C1425DGQ

  • Gestanza Medicina Reproductiva

    Rosario, Santa Fe Province

Other trials in Argentina

Spain2 sites
  • Clinica Fertia

    Fuengirola, Malaga, 29640

  • ProcreaTec

    Madrid, 28036

Other trials in Spain

Canada1 site
  • Pacific Center for Reproductive Medicine

    Burnaby, British Columbia, V5G 4X7

Other trials in Canada

Japan1 site
  • oak Clinic Sumiyoshi

    Osaka, Osaka, 557-0045

Other trials in Japan

Malaysia1 site
  • Alpha Fertility Center

    Petaling Jaya, Selangor, 47810

Other trials in Malaysia

Mexico1 site
  • New Hope Fertility Center

    Mexico City, 11000

Other trials in Mexico

Turkey (Türkiye)1 site
  • Bahçeci Fulya IVF Center

    Istanbul

Other trials in Turkey (Türkiye)

About this study

Official title: Development of a Non-invasive Diagnosis Tool for the Analysis of the Microbiota to Improve Reproductive Outcomes in Infertile Patients.

Although the endometrium tissue has been traditionally considered free of bacteria, recent studies have documented the presence of an endometrial microbiome. In a pilot study conducted by our research team, the microorganisms present in the endometrium were analysed in samples of endometrial fluid (EF) using next generation sequencing (NGS).Consistent with previously published studies, in normal conditions the endometrium is mainly composed of different species of the genus Lactobacillus. It was further noted that the presence of other pathogenic bacteria such as Streptococcus, and/or Gardnerella may alter the endometrial microbiome and can disrupt the uterine environment, affecting implantation rates and pregnancy success.

This project aims to validate the microbiome found in the endometrium of women of reproductive age and try to corroborate the relationship between the endometrial microbiome and the reproductive outcomes in patients undergoing assisted reproduction treatment (ART). The use of Endometrial Receptivity Analysis (ERA) tool, together with the analysis of the endometrial flora before the embryo transfer will allow to evaluate the impact of the presence of endometrial pathogens on implantation in receptive patients.

Therefore, the focus of this project is the development and clinical validation of a non-invasive diagnosis tool to analyse the microbiota, adding the microbiome study to the ERA analysis.

Read the detailed description

Embryonic implantation is a critical process to the survival of the species that is relatively inefficient, especially in humans. Key elements are the embryo, the maternal endometrium, and the cross-communication between them using different scientific perspectives. Endometrial receptivity describes the phenotype that allows embryo adhesion and placentation to occur. Due to the need of an accurate and objective molecular diagnostic test for the receptivity status of endometrium, the Endometrial Receptivity Analysis (ERA) was developed. ERA test is a customized expression microarray that identifies the transcriptomic expression profile signature of the personalized window of implantation (WOI). Its clinical usefulness has been demonstrated in patients with implantation failure in whom 25% of them have a displaced WOI becoming pregnant once the embryo transfer is performed at the proper WOI predicted by ERA. However, this procedure requires an endometrial biopsy (EB), which is the major drawback of this diagnosis test, because embryo transfer has to be delayed to the next cycle, and also the possible discomforts caused to the patients. For this reason, a previous pilot study was conducted in order to confirm whether endometrial receptivity can be predicted through non-invasive methods in endometrial fluid (EF) samples. The gene panel of ERA test was interrogated on epithelial and stromal cells from endometrial biopsies and cells isolated from the EF at the single cell level, demonstrating that the major cells on the EF classifies together with the epithelial population.

On the other hand, to try to better understand the mechanisms that connect endometrial receptivity and/or implantation of the embryo with an altered endometrial microbiome, another pilot study was conducted to determine the composition of the endometrial microbiome after the analysis of the bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA by NGS. Interestingly, in patients with receptive endometrium, diagnosed by Endometrial Receptivity Array (ERA) who had endometrial microbiome with pathogens, or not dominated by bacteria of the genus Lactobacillus (NLD) showed significantly lower implantation (23.1% vs 60.7% p = 0.02), pregnancy (33.3% vs 70.6%, p = 0.03), ongoing pregnancy per embryo transfer (13.3% vs 58.8%, p = 0.03), and live birth (6.7% vs 58.8%, p = 0.002) rates than those with a healthy endometrial microbiome dominated by Lactobacillus (LD). Moreover, this relationship was much more significant when pathogenic species found belonged to the genus Gardnerella and Streptococcus. This is in line with other published studies that analyze the impact of endometrial pathogens in IVF treatments, highlighting the importance of the study of bacterial communities for reproductive health.

Given these preliminary results, the present study aims to validate in a larger sample set, the relationship between the imbalance of endometrial microbiome and the decline in reproductive success in patients undergoing ART. To do this, the experimental design will be improved in the following areas: (i) a higher sample size will be analysed to validate the previous results obtained in the previous pilot study on endometrial microbiome, (ii) paired samples from endometrial fluid and endometrial biopsy will be analysed for the microbial profile to study whether there is bacterial variability associated to the sample type, (iii) the endometrial microbiota will be simultaneously assessed with ERA as a supplementary diagnosis for this tool, and (iv) the analysis of the endometrial microbiota will be performed using the most advanced technology on bacterial metagenome sequencing to widen the information of the microorganisms identified in each sample.

Being tested
Endometrial biopsy and endometrial fluid collection
Keywords
Endometrial microbiota, Bacterial pathogens, Assisted reproductive techniques, Dysbiosis, Endometrial receptivity, Endometrial diagnosis
Medical subject headings
Dysbiosis

What participants receive

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

  • Endometrial biopsy and endometrial fluid collectionProcedure or surgery

    On the same day that the EB for ERA is indicated, in day 5 of a HRT cycle with 5 days of progesterone, according to the common clinical practice, a sample of EF will be aspirated immediately prior to EB for ERA. This EF sample will be used for the non-invasive diagnosis of the microbiome, also a small portion of the endometrial tissue obtained for the endometrial receptivity diagnosis by ERA will be used as a control for the study of the endometrial microbiome. Those patients with a receptive endometrium will continue their ART according to the standard clinical protocol. Those patients with non-receptive endometrium will follow the recommendation derived of the ERA test for the election of the day for a second EB sample, in which the collection of EF sample will be repeated. Finally, the receptivity and microbiome results in EF will be correlated with that on the endometrial tissue, and with the reproductive outcomes of these patients after the embryo transfer.

Study groups in NCT03330444
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
LD microbiome receptive to the ERA testReceptive patients by the ERA test with an endometrial microbiota mainly composed of different species of the genus Lactobacillus, determined by NGS sequencing.
Receives: Procedure: Endometrial biopsy and endometrial fluid collection
NLD microbiome receptive to the ERA testReceptive patients by the ERA test with an endometrial microbiota composed of different pathogenic bacteria such as Streptococcus and Gardnerella, or not dominated by bacteria of the genus Lactobacillus, determined by NGS sequencing.
Receives: Procedure: Endometrial biopsy and endometrial fluid collection

What is being measured

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

  1. Development of a new non-invasive diagnosis test of Endometrial Microbiome (EM) in infertile patients

    Bacterial DNA analysis by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) using endometrial fluid for the EM diagnose. This will be measured by the percentage of each bacterial DNA in EF samples

    Measured: 24 months

Secondary outcomes (7)
  1. Live birth rate

    Number of babies born per embryo transfer

    Measured: 40 weeks

  2. Implantation rate

    Number of implanted embryos per total number of embryos transferred

    Measured: 12 weeks

  3. Pregnancy rate

    Number of pregnancies per embryo transfer

    Measured: 20 weeks

  4. Biochemical pregnancies

    Number of biochemical pregnancies per total number of pregnancies

    Measured: 20 weeks

  5. Ectopic pregnancies

    Number of ectopic pregnancies per total number of pregnancies

    Measured: 20 weeks

  6. Clinical miscarriages

    Number of clinical miscarriages per total number of pregnancies

    Measured: 20 weeks

  7. Ongoing pregnacy rate

    Number of ongoing pregnancies per embryo transfer

    Measured: 40 weeks

Timeline

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

  1. First posted6 Nov 2017
  2. Study start4 Aug 2017
  3. Primary completion17 May 2019
  4. Study completion25 Jun 2020

Resources

More details

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

Study design
Study type
Observational
Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrolment
452 participants (actual)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT03330444
Sponsor's protocol ID
IGX1-MIC-CS-17-05
Acronym
ERA-niMIC
Status last verified
Oct 2020
First submitted
24 Oct 2017
Last updated
9 Oct 2020
Results posted
No
Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
Individual data sharing
No

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

An observational study of Infertility of Uterine Origin, run by Igenomix at 13 sites in 8 countries.

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 7 inclusion and 5 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 9 Oct 2020. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 13 sites in United States, Argentina, Spain, Canada, Japan and 3 more countries. 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. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

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?

Development of a new non-invasive diagnosis test of Endometrial Microbiome (EM) in infertile patients (time frame: 24 months). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?
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 9 Oct 2020.

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