Five healthy volunteers will be repeatedly exposed to L3 Necator americanus larvae after which two skin biopsies will be taken. Three of the volunteers will be treated two weeks after each infection after which the study will end after 13 weeks. Two of the volunteers will retain the infection for up to two years and will be asked to donate stool samples.
Five volunteers will be exposed to 50 Necator americanus L3 larvae, after which they will be treated with a curative regimen of albendazole after two weeks. Then, they will be inoculated with a lower dose of 10 L3 larvae concentrated on one spot, followed by two skin biopsies (one at the inoculation site, the other one serving as a negative control). Subsequently, participants will be treated with albendazole at week 5, except for the participants who have volunteered to become chronic donors. For chronic donors, patency of infection will be assessed and infections repeated (max dose 50 L3 larvae at one time) until egg outputs are \>1500 eggs per gram (epg) at the start of the donor phase. If necessary, top-up inoculations can be performed in the donor phase as well when the egg-output is too low for the requested experiments.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
5
Necator americanus L3 larvae
Leiden University Medical Center
Leiden, Netherlands
Identity of skin effector cells
Identification of effector cells in the skin by Hyperion Imaging Mass Cytometry after repeated controlled hookworm infections
Time frame: 3 weeks + 1 day after initial infection (timepoint of taking the biopsies)
Correlation between macroscopic skin response and effector cells
Association between the macroscopic skin reaction and effector cells present identified by Hyperion Imaging Mass Cytometry
Time frame: 3 weeks + 1 day after initial infection (timepoint of taking the biopsies)
Measurement of humoral (antibody responses and cytokines) and cellular immunological changes after controlled hookworm infections
Time frame: 6 weeks from start of the study
Number of hookworm eggs in faeces after infection
Detection of hookworm eggs by faeces microscopy (Kato-Katz) at week 15-16 in volunteers who volunteered to be chronic donors
Time frame: 15-16 weeks after start of the study
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