Development of a Serocorrelate of Protection Against Invasive Group B Streptococcus Disease

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a bacterium (a bug) that causes serious infections in young infants across the world. In 2015 it was estimated that there were at least 319,000 infants under 3 months of age with GBS disease worldwide, resulting in 90,000 deaths and at least 10,000 children with long term disabilities. Around 20% of all pregnant women carry GBS in their vagina and bowel and babies are exposed to GBS bacteria around the time of birth. The options for prevention are currently limited to offering antibiotics during labour.

A vaccine that could be given to pregnant women has the greatest potential to benefit mothers and babies worldwide. There are vaccines currently being tested in clinical trials, including in pregnant women. The iGBS3 study aims to find out what levels of immunity (usually measured as antibody) a woman needs to pass to her baby to protect the baby from getting GBS disease. This will allow us to predict what antibody level a vaccine has to achieve to be effective and then to get those vaccines licensed and implemented as quickly as possible.

To do this, the study need to take a small sample of cord blood from a very large number of women just after delivering their baby. The study will need to follow around 180 000 babies in order to find at least 170 babies with GBS disease (of which 100 will have disease with the most common type) and compare their levels of antibody in cord blood with 300 healthy babies exposed to the same GBS type. To achieve this, SGUL will work with the Nottingham Clinical Trials Unit to embed this study in their existing GBS3 Trial, in which 80 hospitals across England, Scotland and Wales will be involved for 2 years.

Study Design iGBS3 is a large, multicentre, prospective, unmatched case control study in the UK designed to compare levels of antibody in cord blood in mothers whose infants develop GBS disease (iGBS) and colonised mothers whose infants do not develop GBS disease. To achieve this, the project aim to recruit at least 170 babies with GBS disease (of which 100 will have disease with the most common type) and 300 healthy babies exposed to the same GBS type. An exploratory substudy will look into levels of antibody in cord blood in mothers whose infants develop severe bacterial or viral infections caused by pathogens other than GBS.

Duration The overall duration of the project is planned for 36 months. This includes 2 months set-up, 12 months recruitment for Phase 1, 4 months for interval analysis, 12 months recruitment for Phase 2, 6 months for final retrieval of data, analysis and write-up.