A WashU Medicine-led research team is nearing a major milestone in a clinical trial in Liberia aimed at improving treatment for onchocerciasis, or river blindness. The study, Safety and Efficacy of Novel Combination Regimens for Treatment of Onchocerciasis, has reached its final stage, with participants undergoing final examinations and surgical nodule removal procedures 24 months after initial treatment.
The Death to Onchocerciasis and Lymphatic Filariasis (DOLF) Project‘s trial is testing four drug combinations to determine which are most effective at killing or sterilizing adult Onchocerca volvulus worms, the parasites responsible for disease symptoms and transmission. Because adult worms live in nodules for many years and change naturally over time, researchers are using specialized histology and immunostaining methods to analyze worms and assess how the four treatments worked in a blinded, collaborative process spanning Liberia, St. Louis, and Bonn, Germany.
This work could help identify a superior treatment strategy for a neglected tropical disease that affects millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study team anticipates reaching all 277 participants and collecting 600 nodules by the end of the year, with data analysis extending into early 2027. Beyond helping participants become nodule-free, the study’s findings could provide important insight into whether newer combination therapies outperform current standard regimens used for the elimination of onchocerciasis.
Read more about how a team of WashU Medicine researchers, led by principal investigator Peter Fischer, PhD, are helping coordinate sample collection for analysis in St. Louis. You can also learn more about the collaborative process between WashU Medicine in St. Louis and University Hospital Bonn, Germany to catalog and evaluate the nodules.
(Above) Stained slides with nodule sections