Celgosivir or Modipafant as Treatment for Adult Participants With Uncomplicated Dengue Fever in Singapore

Summary

Dengue fever is an acute febrile illness transmitted by mosquitoes, which affects half the world's population. There are 96 million symptomatic infections, 500,0000 hospitalisations and 25,000 deaths per year attributed to the disease. The economic burden is $12 billion. In Singapore, as elsewhere, the incidence of the disease continues to increase despite aggressive control measures. At present there are no approved medicines for treating dengue fever. Only supportive fluid replacement therapy is used to treat vascular leakage in patients with severe illness. Therefore there is an urgent need to find alternative treatments. Experiments in the laboratory have shown that Celgosivir and modipafant inhibit dengue virus and improve mouse survival. Both drugs have previously been used in humans with good safety records, so investigators are taking this one step further to find out how well it works in dengue patients. Investigators plan to enroll dengue patients within 48 hours of fever onset and assign them to one of four treatment groups over five days. Together with the support from the industry partner, 60°Pharmaceuticals PLC, the investigators will determine the safety and effectiveness of these drugs on acute dengue patients and pave the way forward for dengue antiviral medicines to reach patients.

Timeline

Start

2018-12

Primary completion

2019-08-08

Completion

2019-08-08

Publications

• Background Low JG, Sung C, Wijaya L, Wei Y, Rathore APS, Watanabe S, Tan BH, Toh L, Chua LT, Hou Y, Chow A, Howe S, Chan WK, Tan KH, Chung JS, Cherng BP, Lye DC, Tambayah PA, Ng LC, Connolly J, Hibberd ML, Leo YS, Cheung YB, Ooi EE, Vasudevan SG. Efficacy and safety of celgosivir in patients with dengue fever (CELADEN): a phase 1b, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, proof-of-concept trial. Lancet Infect Dis. 2014 Aug;14(8):706-715. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(14)70730-3. Epub 2014 May 28.
• Background Rathore AP, Paradkar PN, Watanabe S, Tan KH, Sung C, Connolly JE, Low J, Ooi EE, Vasudevan SG. Celgosivir treatment misfolds dengue virus NS1 protein, induces cellular pro-survival genes and protects against lethal challenge mouse model. Antiviral Res. 2011 Dec;92(3):453-60. doi: 10.1016/j.antiviral.2011.10.002. Epub 2011 Oct 12.
• Background Watanabe S, Rathore AP, Sung C, Lu F, Khoo YM, Connolly J, Low J, Ooi EE, Lee HS, Vasudevan SG. Dose- and schedule-dependent protective efficacy of celgosivir in a lethal mouse model for dengue virus infection informs dosing regimen for a proof of concept clinical trial. Antiviral Res. 2012 Oct;96(1):32-5. doi: 10.1016/j.antiviral.2012.07.008. Epub 2012 Jul 31.
• Background Whitby K, Pierson TC, Geiss B, Lane K, Engle M, Zhou Y, Doms RW, Diamond MS. Castanospermine, a potent inhibitor of dengue virus infection in vitro and in vivo. J Virol. 2005 Jul;79(14):8698-706. doi: 10.1128/JVI.79.14.8698-8706.2005.
• Watanabe S, Chan KW, Dow G, Ooi EE, Low JG, Vasudevan SG. Optimizing celgosivir therapy in mouse models of dengue virus infection of serotypes 1 and 2: The search for a window for potential therapeutic efficacy. Antiviral Res. 2016 Mar;127:10-9. doi: 10.1016/j.antiviral.2015.12.008. Epub 2016 Jan 13.

Drugs

Indications