Prednisone Administration in Quiescent COPD Patients to Determine the Effect on Gene Expression

April 28, 2021 updated by: Don Sin, University of British Columbia

Clinical Implementation and Outcomes Evaluation of Blood-Based Biomarkers for COPD Management: COPD Prednisone Sub-Study

In this study, prednisone dose, day/time administration will be controlled in a stable COPD patient population to determine its effect on peripheral whole blood gene expression. This data has never been collected in a COPD population using the investigators' chosen platform for gene expression (Affymetrix Human Gene 1.1 ST). Conducting this experiment is essential for achieving the broader aims of an already existing and related study titled "Clinical Implementation and Outcomes Evaluation of Blood-Based Biomarkers for COPD Management" study. As part of this existing study, blood is being collected from hospitalized and non-hospitalized COPD patients in order to develop a blood-based biomarker test for the diagnosis and prediction of acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD). The majority of these patients were administered prednisone as part of standard care for the treatment of AECOPD. As such, the effect of prednisone on gene expression needs to be ruled out.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The course of COPD is frequently complicated by periods of exacerbation (worsening symptoms) related to infections, pollution, other diseases or poor management of disease. These periods result in urgent visits to physician offices or emergency rooms accounting for the leading cause of hospitalizations. In terms of patient care, physicians lack objective measurements to accurately risk-stratify patients and monitor the effectiveness of interventions provided for their patients. Regrettably, there are no blood tests that can predict who will and will not get AECOPD to require hospitalization. Additionally, current therapies for COPD are only modestly effective in reducing exacerbations. A major challenge in COPD drug development and patient care is the lack of markers, surrogate or otherwise, that can be used to predict outcomes such as hospitalization or mortality.

These critical barriers to drug development and improved patient care could be addressed by the development and clinical implementation of diagnostic and predictive AECOPD biomarkers. This is the aim of an already existing and related study titled "Clinical Implementation and Outcomes Evaluation of Blood-Based Biomarkers for COPD Management study". This study has been enrolling COPD patients since July 2012. The majority of the the study patients were on prednisone at the time of blood collection and at enrollment.

The analyses of publicly available datasets make it abundantly clear that prednisone has important and wide-ranging effects on peripheral whole blood gene expression. These data are insufficient, however, because they cannot inform disease specific effects on gene expression. In addition, because these studies were carried out using a different gene expression platform, they cannot be used to estimate the probeset-specific prednisone effects.

Therefore, the investigators need to ensure that the gene expression associated with AECOPD is not in fact a result of the drug effect. Conducting this study will help us answer this question.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

40

Phase

  • Phase 4

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

    • British Columbia
      • Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6Z 1Y6
        • St. Paul's Hospital

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

17 years to 93 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Participants diagnosed with COPD

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Participants currently taking prednisone
  • Participants who received prednisone within the last 2 weeks
  • Participants who were hospitalized in the last 2 weeks for COPD or a related respiratory condition

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

  • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
  • Allocation: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Prednisone Group
30mg of prednisone PO (orally) everyday for 5 days.
Administration of prednisone to determine the effect on whole blood gene expression.
Other Names:
  • Deltasone
  • Orasone
  • Prednicen-M
  • Liquid Pred
No Intervention: Control Group
no treatment

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Effect of prednisone on peripheral whole blood gene expression
Time Frame: Period of 5 days
Effect of prednisone on peripheral whole blood gene expression of stable COPD patients, assayed using Affymetrix Human Gene 1.1 ST microarrays. This outcome measure will be assessed at each blood draw.
Period of 5 days

Collaborators and Investigators

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

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

August 1, 2015

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2016

Study Completion (Anticipated)

December 1, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 26, 2015

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 26, 2015

First Posted (Estimate)

August 27, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 30, 2021

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 28, 2021

Last Verified

April 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

Undecided

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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