COVID-19 Clinical Trials and Expanded Access

This study is designed as a 2-part, 2-cohort, double-blind, randomized, placebo controlled, multicenter Phase 1/2 study to evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of RJX in patients with COVID-19.

COVID-19 is associated with increased mortality, and has been linked to a 'cytokine inflammatory storm'. Populations at higher risk of COVID complications and mortality include the elderly, diabetic patients and immunocompromised patients (such as HIV), and the investigators have studied these 3 populations over the past 20 years and have found that they all have deficiency of the endogenous antioxidant protein glutathione (GSH), elevated oxidative stress, inflammation, impaired mitochondrial function, immune dysfunction, and endothelial dysfunction. It is known and established that GSH adequacy is necessary for neutralizing harmful oxidative stress, and that elevated oxidative stress appears to promote mitochondrial dysfunction. The combination of oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction have also been linked to inflammation, immune dysfunction, and endothelial dysfunction. In prior studies in aging, the investigators have also identified that supplementing glutathione precursor amino-acids glycine and cysteine (provided as N-acetylcysteine) improves GSH deficiency and mitochondrial function, and lowers oxidative stress, inflammation, and endothelial dysfunction. The investigators have coined the term GlyNAC to refer to the combination of glycine and N-acetylcysteine. This study will evaluate the prevalence and extent of these defects in patients with COVID-19 admitted to the hospital, and the response to supplementing GlyNAC or placebo for 2-weeks. Because patients with COVID-19 are also being reported to have fatigue and cognitive impairment, the investigators will also measure fatigue and cognition at admission, 1-week and 2-weeks after beginning supplementation. The supplementation is stopped after completing 2-weeks, and these outcomes will be measured again after 4-weeks and 8-weeks after stopping supplementation.

Treatment of mild COVID-19 is basically performed at an outpatient clinic, then when the symptom and clinical findings exacerbate to a moderate level, patients are admitted. There is no standard treatment for mild cases. This study will investigate whether ivermectin administration suppresses the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in mild to moderate COVID-19 by investigating the negative rate of SARS-CoV-2 PCR by a randomized controlled trial. Subjects are assigned to two groups, the placebo group, and the ivermectin group. The target number of each treatment arm is 120, a total of 240 cases. A single oral administration of 200 ㎍/kg of ivermectin or an ivermectin-free placebo will be administered on an empty stomach. Time to negativization of SARS-CoV-2 PCR as the primary endpoint with additional efficacy and safety of the process will be investigated.

The purpose of this study is to collect information that will help the reasearchers learn more about COVID-19 infections in cancer patients, and to find out about the effects of these infections on cancer treatment and outcomes. The research study involves asking people to complete a series of online questionnaires that include questions about their medical history, lifestyle, and risk factors related to the COVID-19 infection. The study will enroll both MSK patients and their household family members.

IIBR-100 (VSV-ΔG) is a self-propagating live virus vaccine that contains the spike protein of the Wuhan wild-type SARS-CoV-2 virus. Preclinical and phase 1/2 trials have demonstrated no safety signals of concern and have further demonstrated immunologic response that approximates the response seen in convalescent individuals. The purpose of this phase 2b/3 trial is to document the non-inferiority of IIBR-100 vs. an already-approved vaccine for COVID-19.

The purpose of this double-blind, randomized, controlled study is to assess immunogenicity and safety of 202-CoV at multiple dose levels, administered as 2 injections (i.m) at 28 days apart in adult subjects 18 years of age and above.

Decentralized clinical study designed to collect further cough sounds, self-reported symptoms, and medical treatment questionnaires from participants enrolled on the COVID-Cough Study ("Study 1"). The aim of this further data collection study ("Study 2") is to: 1. develop an understanding of changes in cough sounds associated with COVID-19 and how they alter during the disease; 2. develop an understanding of other causes of COVID-19-like symptoms and their associated cough sound patterns; and 3. gain a broader understanding of the clinical outcomes of individuals who present for COVID-19 testing.

T-cell exhaustion may limit long-term immunity in COVID-19 patients. T cells can lose their ability to fight viruses and tumors when they have prolonged exposure to these enemies. New data suggests people who experience mild COVID-19 symptoms show the molecular signs of exhausted memory T cells and therefore could have a reduced ability to fight reinfection. On contrary people who develop severe COVID-19 symptoms may be better protected from reinfection. A recent study reported that the 82.1% of COVID-19 cases displayed low circulating lymphocyte counts . It has been reported that, in the case of chronic viruses, continuous PD-1 expression causes T-cell exhaustion, and impairs the ability of killing the infectious cells . The adumbration of patients with COVID-19 is characterized by a diminished lymphocyte percentage, with a similar proportion of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells. The quantity of T-cells, mostly CD8+ T-cells, presenting high expression rates of late activity marker CD25 and exhaustion marker PD-1 increases. Therefore, SARS-CoV-2 is able to make changes by modifying the acquired immune system, including B and T cells. According to experiments, PD-1's expression, as an important factor in the induction and maintenance of circumferential tolerance keeping the stability of T-cells, has been found to have a higher percentage in different cells of COVID-19 patients. In an experiment conducted by Diao et al., on the patients with SARS-CoV-2, it was observed that the expression of PD-1 on the surface of T-cells was increased significantly; it was also shown that during the SARS-CoV-2 -induced disease, additional expressions of PD-1 and Tim-3 on the T-cells were directly related to the disease's severity; the factors that were also increased in other viral infections. T cell exhaustion" phenomenon could be reversed relatively easily, for example when the T cells are no longer exposed to the virus or tumor. But unfortunately, although exhausted T cells recovered from chronic infection (REC-TEX) regain some function and features of memory T cells (TMEM), they retain epigenetic scars indicating the control of gene expression is "locked in" to their exhaustion history. Once T cells become exhausted, they remain fundamentally 'wired' to be exhausted-thus it may be hard to get them to become effective virus- and cancer-fighters again," said John Wherry, PhD, chair of the department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics and director of the Penn Institute of Immunology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Furthermore, COVID-19 may infect T lymphocyte cells and induce apoptosis and apoptotic markers. Lymphocytopenia was also found in the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) cases. MERS-CoV can directly infect human primary T lymphocytes and induce T-cell apoptosis through extrinsic and intrinsic apoptosis pathways, but it cannot replicate in T lymphocytes. However, it is unclear whether SARS-CoV-2 can also infect T cells, resulting in lymphocytopenia. A study showed that T cells express a very low expression level of hACE2 on its cell surface and T-cell lines were significantly more sensitive to SARS-CoV-2 infection when compared with SARS-CoV . In other words, these results tell us that T lymphocytes may be more permissive to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Therefore, it is plausible that the S protein of SARS-CoV-2 might mediate potent infectivity, even on cells expressing low hACE2, which would, in turn, explain why the transmission rate of SARS-CoV-2 is so high. Through recent advances in genomic editing, T cells can now be successfully modified via CRISPR/Cas9 technology. For instance, engaging (post-)transcriptional mechanisms to enhance T cell cytokine production, the retargeting of T cell antigen specificity or rendering T cells refractive to inhibitory receptor signaling can augment T cell effector function. Therefore, CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing might provide novel strategies for inducing long term immunity against COVID-19.Immunotherapies with autologous T cells have become a powerful treatment option for many diseases like viral infection or cancer. These include the adoptive isolation and transfer of naturally-occurring virus/tumor-specific T cells and the transfer of T lymphocytes that have been genetically modified . According to the investigator, exhausted virus-reactive CD8+ memory T cells will be isolated from patients with mild infection using a modified antigen-reactive T cell enrichment (ARTE) assay. exhausted virus-reactive CD8+ memory T cells will be collected and both Programmed cell death protein 1(PDCD1) gene and ACE2 gene will be knocked out by CRISPR Cas9 in the laboratory. The lymphocytes will be selected and expanded ex vivo and infused back into patients.

The COVID-19 pandemic is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV-2), an emerging coronavirus, which has already infected 192 million people with a case fatality rate close to 2%. About 5% of patients infected with SARS CoV-2 have a critical form with organ failure. Among critical patients admitted to intensive care, about 70% of them will require ventilatory assistance by invasive mechanical ventilation (MV) with a mortality rate of 35% and a median MV duration of 12 days. The most severe lung damage resulting from SARS CoV-2 infection is the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The virus infects alveolar epithelial cells and capillary endothelial cells leading to an activation of endothelium, hypercoagulability and thrombosis of pulmonary capillaries. This results in abnormal ventilation / perfusion ratios and profound hypoxemia. To date, the therapeutic management of severe SARS CoV-2 pneumonia lay on the early use of corticosteroids and Interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor antagonist, which both reduce the need of MV and mortality. The risk factors of death in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) are: advanced age, severe obesity, coronary heart disease, active cancer, severe hypoxemia, and hepatic and renal failure on admission. Among MV patients, the death rate is doubled in those with both reduced thoracopulmonary compliance and elevated D-dimer levels. Patients with severe alveolar damage are at risk of progressing towards irreversible pulmonary fibrosis, the incidence of which still remain unknown. The diagnosis of pulmonary fibrosis is based on histology but there are some non-invasive alternative methods (serum or bronchoalveolar biomarkers, chest CT scan). We aim to assess the incidence of pulmonary fibrosis in patients with severe SARS CoV-2 related pneumonia. We will investigate the prognostic impact of fibrosis on mortality and the number of days alive free from MV at Day 90. Finally, we aim to identify risk factors of fibrosis.

This study aims to understand why some people who have had COVID-19 develop scarring of the lungs and why some people recover more quickly than others.