Modulating Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress as a Prophylactic Approach Against Symptomatic Viral Infection
Abstract
To determine the efficacy of metformin in reducing the rate of symptomatic YF17D infection, and to elucidate the effects of metformin on YF17D viremia and the downstream adaptive immune response, we hereby propose a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial that is coupled with a system biology approach. We plan to recruit 44 healthy volunteers aged 21-40 years, with a Body Mass Index of 20-25 kg/m2, have no known drug allergies and are not currently receiving regular immune-modulating therapy such as metformin, NSAIDs, paracetamol, corticosteroids or statins. The age range that we propose will ensure that our volunteers are likely to be healthy and not be on long-term medication for other concurrent medical conditions. This would abrogate the confounding effect of YF17D infection enhancement by cross reactive antibodies that we have previously shown.
Informed written consent will be obtained before any physical examination is performed. All consented subjects will undergo screening which includes a full physical examination, vital signs measurement, clinical laboratory tests and urine pregnancy test (for female subjects of child-bearing potential) Eligible subjects will be randomized 1:1 to either metformin 1000mg or placebo twice daily for 7 consecutive days (Days 1-7). On Day 4, subjects will be administered one dose of YF17D before study drug dosing.
Aim 1 tests the hypothesis that prophylactic metformin reduces ER stress and thus attenuates the…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design. Reported size: 32 participants or records.
Read the paper
Related studies
- Metformin as an adjuvant in breast cancer treatment
- Metformin Lysosomal Targeting: A Novel Aspect to Be Investigated for Metformin Repurposing in Neurodegenerative Diseases?
- Aberrant HSF1 signaling activation underlies metformin amelioration of myocardial infarction in mice
- Metformin induces ZFP36 by mTORC1 inhibition in cervical cancer-derived cell lines
- Protein Interaction Network for Identifying Vascular Response of Metformin (Oral Antidiabetic)
- Preventing Long COVID With Metformin
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.