The Pathogenesis of Hepatitis C Virus Vertical Transmission

April 5, 2018 updated by: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

To evaluate for the presence of HCV Core protein, HCV RNA and SPP in the placenta and fetal membranes using paraffin-embedded sections and post-delivery specimens respectively. In parallel, we will assess placental tissue for evidence of HCV infection using a novel in situ hybridization technique and translate our in vitro findings to these in vivo samples.

Our overall hypothesis is that cytotrophoblasts at the maternal-fetal interface within the placenta serve as a "barrier" that must be crossed during vertical transmission and that cytotrophoblasts are permissive to HCV at a low level that may be enhanced under certain conditions. By comparing the regulation of key steps in the intracellular life cycle of HCV in cytotrophoblasts to highly permissive hepatocytes, significant differences in HCV regulation should be revealed.

Based on our preliminary data, our working hypothesis is that HCV Core protein is differentially processed in cytotrophoblasts compared to hepatocytes.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

38

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Egypt
      • Giza, Egypt
        • Cairo University
  • United States
    • North Carolina
      • Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, 27514
        • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

Female

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Pregnant women with HCV infection who present to our collaborating institution in Egypt, and at UNC

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Pregnant women with HCV infection
  • Pregnant women without HCV infection

Exclusion Criteria:

  • None

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
HCV-infected mothers
in situ hybridization
Uninfected mothers
in situ hybridization

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
To evaluate for the presence of HCV Core protein, HCV RNA and SPP in the placenta and fetal membranes using paraffin-embedded sections and post-delivery specimens respectively.
Time Frame: 1 year

We will begin by examining paraffin-embedded sections from HCV-infected mothers who had the placentas sent to pathology for analysis.We will perform a combination of immunohistochemistry (IHC) and immunofluorescence (IF) to analyze the level of SPP expression in the trophoblast cell layer, as well as if HCV Core protein expression was detectable in this layer or in any cell type within the placental section.

We would also plan to identify other patient-derived tissues that were not paraffin embedded, both from uninfected patients and infected patients to validate different parts of our preliminary data. We would plan to use dissected fetal membranes, which contain both chorion and amnion, to investigate the level of SPP expression in these tissues.
1 year

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Collaborators

Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC
Cairo University
University of Maryland

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Ravi Jhaveri, M.D., UNC Department of Pediatrics: Division of Allergy, Immunology, Rheumatology and Infectious Diseases

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

January 1, 2013

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 8, 2013

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 8, 2013

First Posted (Estimate)

August 13, 2013

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 9, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 5, 2018

Last Verified

April 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 13-0958

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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