Image by Konstantin Kolosov from Pixabay

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You’ve been vigilant throughout the pandemic, wearing masks, avoiding close contact with people — but now someone in your household has come down with COVID. Your odds of contracting the virus are as high as 50%, according to one study. What do you do?

First, of course, quarantine the sick person, and wear a mask indoors. Second, consider enrolling in a Johns Hopkins study at Green Spring Station in Lutherville that is testing a treatment to boost the body’s defenses.

“In our study, which we call PROTECT, we’re looking at the potential to treat people who are at high risk for infection but are not yet infected,” said Dr. Mark Sulkowski, professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, and principal investigator of the study.

“We could turn on their antiviral defense mechanisms in a way that would prevent infection or decrease the severity of the infection, which is similar to what vaccine does, but vaccine takes two to four weeks” to work, Sulkowski said. “This is a way to act immediately.”

Two short visits required

Adults ages 18 to 80 who live with someone who has tested positive — but who haven’t tested positive themselves — are eligible for the trial, which requires two in-person visits to Green Spring Station.

During the first visit, researchers will give a COVID test, draw blood and then give one injection. At home, participants will report other information to Sulkowski’s team. At a second appointment 28 days later, researchers will check antibody levels.

The study is a randomized, single-blind trial, which means that one group of participants will receive a pharmaceutical injection, and the other will receive a saline solution. Neither injection causes harsh side effects.

“For people who are otherwise feeling well, we know that this will not cause notable side effects,” Sulkowski said.

Activating the immune system

The treatment Sulkowski’s team is testing is a type of interferon.

“Interferons are part of our natural antiviral defense mechanism that quickly responds to infection. It’s been noted that interferon is part of the early response to SARS-CoV-2 [the virus that causes COVID-19],” Sulkowski said.

Since the tested type of interferon is found on the body’s respiratory epithelial cells, where the virus attacks, “very early in the COVID pandemic it was discovered that [this treatment] might be a very good strategy,” he said.

People who want to help scientists end the pandemic can enroll in the PROTECT study or other COVID-19 studies.

“It’s very important that we find ways to disrupt the spread of SARS-CoV-2. That requires many different strategies,” he said.

Compensation of $100 will be provided. To enroll, text or call (410) 314-1142 or email PROTECT-study@jhmi.edu.