Urban Environmental Factors and Childhood Asthma

Asthma Clinical Trial

— URECA  

Official title:

Urban Environment and Childhood Asthma (URECA)

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Active, not recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT00114881
• Other study ID #: DAIT ICAC-07
• Secondary ID: NIAID CRMS ID#:
• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Start date: February 2, 2005
• Est. completion date: March 2025

Study information

• Verified date: September 2023
• Source: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Observational

Clinical Trial Summary

Minority children who grow up in poor urban neighborhoods have the highest rates of asthma, and also experience greater morbidity from acute exacerbations of this disease. The aim of this study is to further identify environmental factors unique to the inner city that affect immune development and the expression of wheezing, atopy and asthma for purposes of identifying new strategies for asthma prevention.

Description:

The purpose of this study is to determine the way environmental factors (like the components of inner-city household dust) affect immune system development and symptoms of asthma in inner city children. The study is divided into five periods, as the subjects age from birth to 17 years old. Each age bracket will explore different objectives and endpoints.

Study Objectives/Hypotheses:

1. Subjects age 0 to 3 years old:

• Environmental factors in the inner city adversely influence the development of the immune system to promote cytokine dysregulation, allergy, and recurrent wheezing by age 3.

• Children who have had a viral lower respiratory infection and have developed cytokine dysregulation by age 3 are at increased risk for the development of asthma by age 6.

2. Subjects age 4 to 7 years old:

• There is a unique pattern of immune development that is driven by specific urban exposures in early life, and this pattern of immune development is characterized by: 1) impairment of antiviral responses and 2) accentuation of Th2-like responses (e.g. cockroach-specific Interleukin-13(IL-13)). The clinical effects of these changes in immune development are frequent virus-induced wheezing and allergic sensitization by 3-4 years of age, and these characteristics synergistically increase the risk of asthma at age 7 years.

3. Subjects age 7 to 10 years old:

• There are unique combinations of environmental exposures (cockroach allergens, indoor pollutants [Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2)], lack of microbial exposure), and family characteristics (stress, genetic factors related to innate immunity) that synergistically promote asthma onset, persistence, and morbidity in urban neighborhoods. These exposures and characteristics influence immune expression and lung development during critical periods of growth, resulting in specific asthma phenotypes.

4. Subjects age 10 to 16 years old:

-To determine the wheezing, asthma and atopy phenotypes in minority children growing up in poor urban neighborhoods as they develop from birth through adolescence.

5. Subjects to age 17 (Continuation of phase 4 to follow participants to age 17) To determine the wheezing, asthma and atopy phenotypes in minority children growing up in poor urban neighborhoods as they develop from birth through adolescence.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Enrollment: 560
• Est. completion date: March 2025
• Est. primary completion date: March 2025
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: N/A and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria for Mothers:

• Plan to give birth at the study hospital

• Have asthma, hay fever, or eczema (or infant's father has any of these diseases)

• Currently reside in a pre-selected area containing at least 20% of households below the U.S. government poverty level

• At least 34 weeks pregnant at time of delivery

• Willing to allow an umbilical cord blood specimen to be obtained from her infant

• Willing to comply with all study requirements

• Have access to a phone

• Speak English. Spanish-speaking participants enrolled at sites with Spanish-speaking staff are also eligible.

Exclusion Criteria for Mothers:

• HIV infected at the time of delivery

• Plan to move out of the geographic area during the study

Exclusion Criteria for Infants:

• Respiratory distress requiring intubation and ventilation for 4 hours or more

• Respiratory distress requiring either supplemental oxygen or continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) for 4 days or more

• Pneumonia requiring antibiotic treatment for 1 week or more

• Significant congenital abnormality

• Received palivizumab for respiratory syncytial virus prophylaxis

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Allergy
• Asthma

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Pediatric Clinical Research Unit, Johns Hopkins University	Baltimore	Maryland
United States	Boston Medical Center	Boston	Massachusetts
United States	Columbia University Medical Center	New York	New York
United States	Saint Louis Children's Hospital	Saint Louis	Missouri

Sponsors (3)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)	Inner-City Asthma Consortium, Rho Federal Systems Division, Inc.

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (26)

Altman MC, Whalen E, Togias A, O'Connor GT, Bacharier LB, Bloomberg GR, Kattan M, Wood RA, Presnell S, LeBeau P, Jaffee K, Visness CM, Busse WW, Gern JE. Allergen-induced activation of natural killer cells represents an early-life immune response in the d — View Citation

Bacharier LB, Beigelman A, Calatroni A, Jackson DJ, Gergen PJ, O'Connor GT, Kattan M, Wood RA, Sandel MT, Lynch SV, Fujimura KE, Fadrosh DW, Santee CA, Boushey H, Visness CM, Gern JE; NIAID sponsored Inner-City Asthma Consortium. Longitudinal Phenotypes o — View Citation

Chandra S, Wingender G, Greenbaum JA, Khurana A, Gholami AM, Ganesan AP, Rosenbach M, Jaffee K, Gern JE, Wood R, O'Connor G, Sandel M, Kattan M, Bacharier L, Togias A, Horner AA, Kronenberg M. Development of Asthma in Inner-City Children: Possible Roles o — View Citation

Chi A, Wildfire J, McLoughlin R, Wood RA, Bloomberg GR, Kattan M, Gergen P, Gold DR, Witter F, Chen T, Holick M, Visness C, Gern J, O'Connor GT. Umbilical cord plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration and immune function at birth: the Urban Environment an — View Citation

Gern JE, Calatroni A, Jaffee KF, Lynn H, Dresen A, Cruikshank WW, Lederman HM, Sampson HA, Shreffler W, Bacharier LB, Gergen PJ, Gold DR, Kattan M, O'Connor GT, Sandel MT, Wood RA, Bloomberg GR. Patterns of immune development in urban preschoolers with re — View Citation

Gern JE, Pappas T, Visness CM, Jaffee KF, Lemanske RF, Togias A, Bloomberg GR, Cruikshank WW, Lamm C, Tuzova M, Wood RA, Lee WM. Comparison of the etiology of viral respiratory illnesses in inner-city and suburban infants. J Infect Dis. 2012 Nov;206(9):13 — View Citation

Gern JE, Visness CM, Gergen PJ, Wood RA, Bloomberg GR, O'Connor GT, Kattan M, Sampson HA, Witter FR, Sandel MT, Shreffler WG, Wright RJ, Arbes SJ Jr, Busse WW. The Urban Environment and Childhood Asthma (URECA) birth cohort study: design, methods, and stu — View Citation

Gern JE. The Urban Environment and Childhood Asthma study. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2010 Mar;125(3):545-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2010.01.037. — View Citation

Gold DR, Bloomberg GR, Cruikshank WW, Visness CM, Schwarz J, Kattan M, O'Connor GT, Wood RA, Burger MS, Wright RJ, Witter F, Lee-Parritz A, Sperling R, Sadovsky Y, Togias A, Gern JE. Parental characteristics, somatic fetal growth, and season of birth infl — View Citation

Gruenberg DA, Wright RJ, Visness CM, Jaffee KF, Bloomberg GR, Cruikshank WW, Kattan M, Sandel MT, Wood RA, Gern JE. Relation between stress and cytokine responses in inner-city mothers. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2015 Nov;115(5):439-445.e3. doi: 10.1016/ — View Citation

Heymann PW, Platts-Mills TA. Deciphering the importance of host and environmental factors that influence the genesis of asthma during childhood. J Infect Dis. 2012 Nov;206(9):1331-3. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jis507. Epub 2012 Sep 25. No abstract available. — View Citation

Kakumanu S, Jaffee K, Visness CM, Dresen A, Burger M, Witter FR, O'Connor GT, Cruikshank WW, Shreffler WG, Bacharier LB, Gern JE. The influence of atopy and asthma on immune responses in inner-city adults. Immun Inflamm Dis. 2016 Feb 26;4(1):80-90. doi: 1 — View Citation

Kattan M, Bacharier LB, O'Connor GT, Cohen R, Sorkness RL, Morgan W, Gergen PJ, Jaffee KF, Visness CM, Wood RA, Bloomberg GR, Doyle S, Burton R, Gern JE. Spirometry and Impulse Oscillometry in Preschool Children: Acceptability and Relationship to Maternal — View Citation

Lee WM, Grindle K, Pappas T, Marshall DJ, Moser MJ, Beaty EL, Shult PA, Prudent JR, Gern JE. High-throughput, sensitive, and accurate multiplex PCR-microsphere flow cytometry system for large-scale comprehensive detection of respiratory viruses. J Clin Microbiol. 2007 Aug;45(8):2626-34. doi: 10.1128/JCM.02501-06. Epub 2007 May 30. — View Citation

Lee WM, Kiesner C, Pappas T, Lee I, Grindle K, Jartti T, Jakiela B, Lemanske RF Jr, Shult PA, Gern JE. A diverse group of previously unrecognized human rhinoviruses are common causes of respiratory illnesses in infants. PLoS One. 2007 Oct 3;2(10):e966. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0000966. — View Citation

Ly NP, Ruiz-Perez B, McLoughlin RM, Visness CM, Wallace PK, Cruikshank WW, Tzianabos AO, O'Connor GT, Gold DR, Gern JE. Characterization of regulatory T cells in urban newborns. Clin Mol Allergy. 2009 Jul 8;7:8. doi: 10.1186/1476-7961-7-8. — View Citation

Lynch SV, Wood RA, Boushey H, Bacharier LB, Bloomberg GR, Kattan M, O'Connor GT, Sandel MT, Calatroni A, Matsui E, Johnson CC, Lynn H, Visness CM, Jaffee KF, Gergen PJ, Gold DR, Wright RJ, Fujimura K, Rauch M, Busse WW, Gern JE. Effects of early-life expo — View Citation

McGowan EC, Bloomberg GR, Gergen PJ, Visness CM, Jaffee KF, Sandel M, O'Connor G, Kattan M, Gern J, Wood RA. Influence of early-life exposures on food sensitization and food allergy in an inner-city birth cohort. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2015 Jan;135(1):17 — View Citation

McLoughlin RM, Calatroni A, Visness CM, Wallace PK, Cruikshank WW, Tuzova M, Ly NP, Ruiz-Perez B, Kattan M, Bloomberg GR, Lederman H, Gern JE, Gold DR. Longitudinal relationship of early life immunomodulatory T cell phenotype and function to development o — View Citation

O'Connor GT, Lynch SV, Bloomberg GR, Kattan M, Wood RA, Gergen PJ, Jaffee KF, Calatroni A, Bacharier LB, Beigelman A, Sandel MT, Johnson CC, Faruqi A, Santee C, Fujimura KE, Fadrosh D, Boushey H, Visness CM, Gern JE. Early-life home environment and risk o — View Citation

Ramratnam SK, Visness CM, Jaffee KF, Bloomberg GR, Kattan M, Sandel MT, Wood RA, Gern JE, Wright RJ. Relationships among Maternal Stress and Depression, Type 2 Responses, and Recurrent Wheezing at Age 3 Years in Low-Income Urban Families. Am J Respir Crit — View Citation

Shreffler WG, Visness CM, Burger M, Cruikshank WW, Lederman HM, de la Morena M, Grindle K, Calatroni A, Sampson HA, Gern JE. Standardization and performance evaluation of mononuclear cell cytokine secretion assays in a multicenter study. BMC Immunol. 2006 — View Citation

Sumino K, Tucker J, Shahab M, Jaffee KF, Visness CM, Gern JE, Bloomberg GR, Holtzman MJ. Antiviral IFN-gamma responses of monocytes at birth predict respiratory tract illness in the first year of life. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2012 May;129(5):1267-1273.e1. — View Citation

Wood RA, Bloomberg GR, Kattan M, Conroy K, Sandel MT, Dresen A, Gergen PJ, Gold DR, Schwarz JC, Visness CM, Gern JE. Relationships among environmental exposures, cord blood cytokine responses, allergy, and wheeze at 1 year of age in an inner-city birth co — View Citation

Wright RJ, Visness CM, Calatroni A, Grayson MH, Gold DR, Sandel MT, Lee-Parritz A, Wood RA, Kattan M, Bloomberg GR, Burger M, Togias A, Witter FR, Sperling RS, Sadovsky Y, Gern JE. Prenatal maternal stress and cord blood innate and adaptive cytokine respo — View Citation

Zook PM, Jordan C, Adams B, Visness CM, Walter M, Pollenz K, Logan J, Tesson E, Smartt E, Chen A, D'Agostino J, Gern JE. Retention strategies and predictors of attrition in an urban pediatric asthma study. Clin Trials. 2010 Aug;7(4):400-10. doi: 10.1177/1 — View Citation

* Note: There are 26 references in all — Click here to view all references

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Development of wheezing	Establish in inner city children the immunologic causes for the development of recurrent wheezing.	0 to 3 years of age
Primary	Correlation of Immunologic Factors and Development of Asthma	Establish, in this cohort of inner-city children, the immunologic causes for the development of asthma at age 7	by 7 years of age
Primary	Correlation of Risk Factors to Rapidly Evolving Asthma Phenotypes	Fully define the rapidly evolving asthma phenotypes and further delineate the role of risk factors related to environmental exposure (e.g.; house dust levels found through home inspection), immune development, lung growth on the natural history of asthma and allergic diseases in urban minority children	up to 10 years of age
Primary	Incidence of Asthma	Number of participants with the incidence (development) of asthma	up to 17 years of age
Primary	Occurrence of Specific Phenotypes of Asthma	Further define asthma phenotypes based on the findings in Inner-city Asthma Consortium-19 (ICAC-19) (Asthma Phenotypes in the Inner City (APIC), ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT01383941).	up to 17 years of age

External Links

•   Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation (DAIT), NIAID
•   National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)