NIH study to combat RSV infection — 5 takeaways

National Institutes of Health launched a study to learn how to develop and test antivirals and vaccines to fight respiratory syncytial virus infections, according to Pharmabiz.com.

Here are five takeaways about the study.

1. Healthy adult volunteers will be exposed to RSV, a virus that causes cold-like symptoms in adults. Researchers will enroll up to 60 healthy men and women ages 18 to 50 years.  

2. Participants will receive a drop of liquid containing the RSV virus in each nostril and will remain hospitalized in isolation in the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., for one to two weeks.

3. Researchers will monitor the participants each day for signs and symptoms of RSV infection and will draw blood and sample nasal sections to study the development of the infections. Researchers will work with the John Hopkins University School of Public Health in Baltimore to analyze participant samples to measure levels of virus shedding and immune protections.

4. In the study, researchers will use a laboratory-developed strain of RSV known as RSV A2, the first molecularly-cloned challenge virus. Participants are likely to develop cold-like symptoms once infected with RSV A2.

5. Researchers do not expect the healthy volunteers to become severely sick from the RSV A2 virus because most healthy adults are exposed to the RSV virus in their lives. Patients will most likely remain asymptomatic or develop a mild to moderate cold.

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