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PINIT Study: Primary Intranasal Insulin Trial

An Immune Efficacy Study for Primary Prevention Using Intranasal Insulin Therapy in Islet Autoantibody Negative Children at High Genetic Risk for Type 1 Diabetes

Status
Completed
Phases
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT03182322
Enrollment
38
Registered
2017-06-09
Start date
2018-05-25
Completion date
2021-06-07
Last updated
2021-06-22

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1

Keywords

Type 1 diabetes, T1D, diabetes mellitus, intranasal insulin, mucosal tolerance, autoantigen, self tolerance, prevention, at risk for developing type 1 diabetes, juvenile diabetes

Brief summary

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) results from an autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells. Administration of mucosal insulin in islet autoantibody-negative children who are genetically predisposed for T1D offers the potential for inducing immunological tolerance to beta cells and thereby protect against the development of islet autoimmunity and T1D. Intranasal insulin has the advantage that whole protein will be exposed at the mucosa. Therefore, the available dose of insulin when administered intranasally is likely to be consistent between individuals. On this basis, the investigators aim to conduct a placebo-controlled, double-blind/double-masked primary intervention pilot trial (PINIT Study) of intranasal insulin treatment in islet autoantibody negative children to test immune efficacy and safety in the primary prevention setting. This pilot will help to develop and design a Phase III study aiming to test efficacy of preventing islet autoimmunity and T1D.

Detailed description

Hypothesis: The hypothesis is that intranasal administration of insulin will induce protective immune responses and prevent T1D-autoimmunity, and the development of T1D. Objectives: To determine whether intranasal administration of 440 IU insulin to children with high genetic risk for T1D will induce likely protective IgG or IgA antibody responses to insulin, and/or T-cell responses to insulin and/or proinsulin. Intranasal insulin will be applied as a fine aerosol spray to the back of the nose. The insulin formulation and method of administration of intranasal insulin is designed to stimulate local mucosal immunity to insulin as an antigenic protein. Without an absorption enhancer, such as a surfactant, intranasal insulin is not anticipated to have systemic hormonal effects. The presentation is a multi-dose spray device with nasal actuator in a brown glass vial designed to deliver 50 μl spray doses to the nasal mucosa. The PINIT Study is designed as a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, multicenter, primary intervention pilot phase II study, in which intranasal insulin will be administered daily for the first seven days and once per week thereafter. The study will include 38 islet autoantibody negative children with the HLA DR3/4-DQ8 genotype or with a first degree relative with T1D and at least one HLA DR4-DQ8 haplotype and no protective HLA DR-DQ alleles or haplotypes. These 38 children will be randomized to either insulin or placebo in a 1:1 ratio. The study will be monitored by an external Data Safety Monitoring Committee (DSMB). Recruitment will be carried out German wide and will be organized by clinical centers in Munich and Dresden. PINIT will determine the immune bioavailability of mucosal insulin to the immune system in the age group of 1 year to 7 years and assess safety of treatment with intranasal insulin at a single dose (440 IU). Primary outcome - immune efficacy: The primary outcome is immune efficacy measured by the activation of an immune response (antibody or CD4+ T cell) against insulin. Additional outcomes are: * safety assessed by blood glucose concentrations in the first 2 hours after receiving study drug to determine whether the treatment induces hypoglycaemia, and the development of islet autoantibodies to GAD and IA-2 and ZnT8 is assessed at 3 and 6 months after commencing treatment. * mechanistic T cell studies to determine the characteristics of any T cell response to insulin. * Flow cytometry to measure T cell and monocyte subpopulations * RNA seq on peripheral blood mononuclear cells * Serum inflammatory markers Comparisons between treatment groups will be performed on the whole cohort and also separately on the participants by the type 1 diabetes susceptible INS genotype, and after stratification for age and SIGLEC1 (CD169) positivity of monocytes. Time schedule: The recruitment phase will run over a period of 12 months. Enrolled participants will be treated for 6 months. First patient first visit (FPFV) occured in May 2018 and the last patient last visit (LPLV) occured on 18. August 2020. The overall end of trial time point is defined as the time when all mechanistic assays and measurement of lab values including T-cell stimulation tests have been completed. This is expected by end of February 2021.

Interventions

DRUGintranasal insulin

Total of 6 months treatment; daily for the first 7 intervention days and one day per week thereafter (formulation containing rH-insulin, benzalkonium chloride, glycerol and water)

OTHERPlacebo

Total of 6 months treatment; daily for the first 7 intervention days and one day per week thereafter placebo (formulation containing benzalkonium chloride, glycerol and water)

Sponsors

Technische Universität Dresden
CollaboratorOTHER
Ludwig-Maximilians - University of Munich
CollaboratorOTHER
Helmholtz Zentrum München
CollaboratorINDUSTRY
University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus
CollaboratorOTHER
Technical University of Munich
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
TRIPLE (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
1 Years to 7 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

1. Children aged 1 year to 7 years (randomization must be performed prior to 8th birthday) who * have the HLA DR3-DQB1\*0201/DR4-DQB1\*0302 or the HLA DR3-DQB1\*0201/DR4-DQB1\*0304 genotype or * have a first degree relative with type 1 diabetes, and have a HLA genotype that includes the HLA DR4-DQB1\*0302 or HLA DR4-DQB1\*0304 haplotype, and does not include one of the following alleles DR 11, DR 12, DQB1\*0602, or haplotypes DR7-DQB1\*0303, DR14-DQB1\*0503, DR13-DQB1\*0603 and must be 2. Islet autoantibody negative (autoantibodies against insulin, GAD, IA-2 and ZnT8) at time of screening.

Exclusion criteria

1. Concomitant disease or treatment, which may interfere with assessment or cause immunosuppression, as judged by the investigators. 2. Any condition that could be associated with poor compliance. 3. Any defect or pathology of nasal passage, which would preclude application of the intranasal spray. 4. Any moderate to severe intolerance to ingredients of the investigational medicinal product.

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
The activation of an immune response (antibody or CD4+ T cell) against insulin.change from baseline (visit 1) in CD4+ T cell response measured as a stimulation index at 3 months (visit 2) and 6 months (visit 3) of treatmentThe responses are as previously defined in the Pre-POINT study (JAMA 313:1541-9). An antibody response is defined as serum IAA positivity in the competitive immuno-precipitation assay, an increase from baseline (\>10 cpm) in serum IgG binding to insulin, or a positive salivary IgA binding to insulin. A CD4+ T cell response is defined as a stimulation index \>3 and a \>2-fold increase from stimulation index at baseline. A positive response (responder) will be defined as a child with an antibody or T cell response to insulin at any time point during treatment. The number of responders in the insulin treated group will be compared with the number of responders in the placebo treated group.

Other

MeasureTime frameDescription
GAD, IA-2 and ZnT8 autoantibodiesMeasured at baseline and at 3 months, 6 months.The purpose is to detect seroconversion to islet autoantibody positive. Measurements are performed using a radiobinding immunoprecipitation assay. Frequency of confirmed positive autoantibody results (i.e. autoantibody positive in two consecutive serum samples) will be compared between placebo vs. insulin treated children
Gene expression analysis of single cells.baseline, 3 months and 6 monthsThe gene expression of the insulin responsive cells will be compared between the placebo and study drug treated children using different multivariable gene expression analysis methods (for instance Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (tSNE) analysis).
FOXP3/IFNG signature ratiobaseline, 3 months and 6 monthsThe FOXP3 signature/IFNG signature ratio of the insulin responsive cells will be compared between the placebo and study drug treated children.
Change in IgG-IAAbaseline, 3 months and 6 monthsThe change from baseline in IgG-IAA measured by radio-binding assay will be compared between placebo and study drug treated children.
Antibody responsesbaseline,3 months and 6 monthsAntibody responses will be compared between placebo and study drug treated children using time to event analyses.
CD4+ T cells responses to insulinbaseline, 3 months and 6 monthsCD4+ T cells responses to insulin will be compared between placebo and study drug treated children using time to event analyses.
HypoglycemiaMeasured at baseline (visit 1) and at each subsequent visit at 3 months (visit 2) and 6 months (visit 3) of treatment.Metabolic changes within two hours after receiving study drug. This will be performed at the first administration of intranasal insulin or placebo at baseline, 3 months and 6 months of treatment (visit 1, visit 2, and visit 3). At these visits, blood glucose concentrations will be measured at 0 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, and 120 minutes after receiving study drug to determine whether the treatment induces hypoglycaemia which is defined as \<50 mg/dl.
CD8+ T cell responses to insulinbaseline, 3 months and 6 monthsCD8+ T cell responses to insulin using the definition for CD4+ T cells as defined above will be compared between placebo and study drug treated children using time to event analyses.
CD8+ T cells responses to pre-proinsulin peptidesbaseline, 3 months and 6 monthsCD8+ T cells responses to pre-proinsulin peptides will be compared between placebo and study drug treated children using time to event analyses.
T cell and monocyte populationsbaseline, 3 months and 6 monthsPeripheral blood T cell and monocyte populations will be compared between placebo and study drug treated children.
Plasma inflammatory markersbaseline, 3 months and 6 monthsPlasma inflammatory markers will be compared between placebo and study drug treated children.Therefore, the Olink Target 96 Inflammation protein biomarker panel is used. An overview of all 92 biomarkers can be seen on the following homepage: https://www.olink.com/products/inflammation/
Transcriptome of peripheral blood cell populationsbaseline, 3 months and 6 monthsIf available, transcriptome of peripheral blood cell populations will be compared between placebo and study drug treated children.
CD4+ T cells responses to pre-proinsulin peptideschange from baseline to 3 months and 6 monthsCD4+ T cells responses to pre-proinsulin peptides will be compared between placebo and study drug treated children using time to event analyses.

Countries

Germany

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026