Clinical Trial Details
— Status: Recruiting
Administrative data
NCT number |
NCT05478824 |
Other study ID # |
Pro00107990 |
Secondary ID |
R668-AS-2198 |
Status |
Recruiting |
Phase |
|
First received |
|
Last updated |
|
Start date |
February 21, 2023 |
Est. completion date |
August 31, 2024 |
Study information
Verified date |
November 2023 |
Source |
Duke University |
Contact |
CRC |
Phone |
(919) 479-0861 |
Email |
dukeairwayresearch[@]duke.edu |
Is FDA regulated |
No |
Health authority |
|
Study type |
Observational
|
Clinical Trial Summary
This study will investigate the role of dupilumab in the treatment of asthma with comorbid
obesity. It is hypothesized that in airway epithelial cells, unique transcriptomic and
proteomic expression patterns distinguish allergic and non-allergic patients with asthma and
obesity and drive significant differential responses to dupilumab. It is further hypothesized
that dupilumab will increase interleukin-13 receptor alpha 2 (IL-13Rα2) levels and/or
signaling activity on airway epithelial cells isolated from allergic asthma patients with
obesity. This is a pre-clinical research study of dupilumab-induced gene and protein
expression analyses in nasal airway epithelial cells of adults with asthma and comorbid
obesity. The study primarily seeks to: 1) assess the effect of dupilumab on transcriptomes,
phosphoproteomes and secretomes of well-differentiated, primary airway epithelial cells as a
function IL-13R subunit expression and IL-13Ra2 signaling, in allergic and non-allergic
asthma patients with obesity; and 2) test whether dupilumab-induced gene and protein changes
significantly correlate with parameters of airway inflammation in allergic and non-allergic
asthma.
Description:
AIM 1. Critically assess dupilumab-regulated transcriptome, phosphoproteome and secretome of
nasal airway epithelial cells isolated from obese patients with allergic vs. non-allergic
asthma and comorbid obesity. AIM 2. Determine the effect of dupilumab on expression and
signaling activity of IL-4Ra, IL-13Ra1, and IL-13Ra2 in nasal airway epithelial cells
isolated from patients with allergic vs. non-allergic asthma and comorbid obesity.
Study Design: The goal is to enroll 16 adults with allergic asthma and obesity and 16 adults
with non-allergic asthma and obesity. Subjects in each group will undergo an initial
screening visit (V0) to establish the subject groups according to allergic status. "Allergic"
asthma will be defined as the presence of a positive skin prick test, absolute eosinophil
count >150/uL and serum IgE > 100 IU/ml, as these criteria have differentiated phenotypes of
patients with asthma and obesity in previous studies. Subjects will undergo skin allergy
testing and blood sampling at V0. Subjects will return within 2 weeks of initial screening,
and we will collect fresh brushings of the sinonasal inferior turbinate of participants using
sterile cytology brushes.
Study Population: Obese adults with allergic and non-allergic asthma.
Analysis Plan:
The effect of dupilumab on transcriptomic and proteomic expression patterns, including fold
change of IL-13Ra2 signaling, will be compared between obese allergic and obese non-allergic
asthma patients. Each dataset will be critically evaluated for data quality and then
processed using field-standard workflows. For the mRNA-seq data, DESeq2 package will be
utilized to identify differentially expressed transcripts, and for the proteomic data we will
employ linear models using a moderated test statistic. In addition to identify individual
transcripts and proteins that are differentially regulated, Ingenuity Pathway Analysis will
be performed to identify dysregulated pathways. The false discovery rate will be used to
correct for multiple hypothesis testing within each of the analyses performed. Additional
biomarkers including serum IgE, periostin and IL-33; cell surface IL-4Ra and IL-13Ra1,
spirometry and IOS measurements; blood eosinophil counts; methacholine PC20; ACQ scores and
FeNO measurements will be compared using either the Student's t-test or the Wilcoxon rank sum
test, depending on the normality of the specific dataset. SAS version 9.4 or higher (SAS
Institute, Inc., Cary, NC), and the R statistical programming environment, version 4.0 or
higher, will be used for all analyses and an adjusted p-value <0.05 will be considered
statistically significant.
Sample size: The sample size calculations are based upon estimates of clinically meaningful
mean differences and standard deviations. Baseline fold change of IL-13RA2 expression was
measured in cultured human airway fibroblasts for 6 subjects in a lean asthma group (0.312 ±
0.289) and 7 subjects in an obese asthma group (5.285 ± 3.944). Group sample sizes of 8
within each group (16 total) achieves 86.2% power to reject the null hypothesis of equal
means with a significance level (alpha) of 0.050 using a two-sided two-sample unequal
variance t-test.
The effect size for this comparison, based on historical data, is approximately 1.75 (fairly
large effect size). Therefore, increasing the sample size to 16 patients per group would
offer the ability to detect a lower effect size of 1.07 to 1.21 with 80% to 90% power.
Assuming a similar standard deviation in each group, this translates into the ability to
detect a difference between asthma groups of at least 3.0. To allow for a potential 15%
patient drop-out rate, the plan is to recruit a total of 36 participants.