Clinical trials

Patients with interstitial lung diseases (ILD) suffer significant delays in obtaining a diagnosis, and objective evidence of support for immunosuppressive therapies, due to weaknesses in the diagnostic tests available in ILD clinics. This project will assess several non-invasive assessments, focusing on blood and breath based sampling, to identify candidate tests that may translate through to routine clinical use. The tests being assessed will be initially employed in Pigeon Fanciers, a group recognised to be at high risk of developing ILD compared to age matched controls, due to their regular exposure to a known cause of ILD. Candidate tests will also be assessed for change over time in this group. Tests which show promise will then be utilised in patients with ILD diagnoses, including those with severe respiratory failure, to assess their acceptability to patients and their ability to provide useful prognostic information, to allow powering of future definitive clinical trials.

People with type 1 diabetes sometimes develop heart failure which can cause symptoms like breathlessness, tiredness or ankle swelling, reduced quality of life and lead to being admitted to hospital or suffering potential fatal consequences. This trial is investigating if a tablet called sotagliflozin, can improve quality of life in people with type 1 diabetes and heart failure. In addition, this trial will also assess the safety and tolerability of sotagliflozin in this population. In previous trials that included people with type 2 diabetes and heart failure sotagliflozin was shown to improve patients' symptoms of heart failure, quality of life and reduce the chance of people with heart failure being admitted to hospital or dying. However, people with type 1 diabetes and heart failure were not included in these trials meaning that it is not known if these benefits also apply to this population. This trial aims to recruit 320 people with type 1 diabetes and heart failure symptoms in multiple sites in the United Kingdom (UK). This trial will compare the health and quality of life of participants who take sotagliflozin tablets with participants who take placebo tablets, which is a dummy tablet that looks the same as sotagliflozin. Participants will be randomly allocated to one of two groups (i.e. one taking sotagliflozin and the other the placebo) and both the medical team and participants will not know in which group each participant is until the end of the study. Participants will be in the trial for approximately 6 months and will be given sotagliflozin or placebo tablets to take 1 per day for 4 months. The trial is expected to run for a total of 26 months.

Bronchiectasis is a complex heterogeneous disorder. Treatment is challenging and many recent randomized controlled trials have been negative. It is believed that bronchiectasis as a broad diagnosis incorporates multiple different patient subgroups (also known as phenotypes) and molecular entities (referred to as endotypes). This study aims to phenotype and endotype bronchiectasis during stable disease and exacerbations, to develop strategies for personalised medicine. Primary Objective To determine molecular endotypes of bronchiectasis which can guide response to treatment. Secondary Objectives 1. To determine molecular endotypes of stable bronchiectasis 2. To determine the causes and inflammatory profiles of bronchiectasis exacerbations 3. To validate candidate biomarkers of stable and exacerbation endotypes to use in stratified medicine 4. To perform in-vivo or in-vitro proof of concept studies using phenotypic data to identify patient populations likely to benefit in future randomized controlled trials This is an observational cohort study that will aim to identify patient subgroups and link these with meaningful clinical outcomes.