Phage Therapy for Recurrent UTIs in Kidney Transplant Recipients

Recruiting now · Phase 1/Phase 2 · Has a placebo group

Conditions studied: Urinary Tract Infection, Recurrent

In brief

This proposal will take an important first step in the study of phage therapy for treatment of recurrent urinary tract infection (rUTI) in female kidney transplant recipients (KTR); a common condition that is associated with increasing multidrug resistance, sickness, loss of kidney function and death. The investigators will conduct a randomized phase I/II pilot clinical trial of targeted phage therapy versus placebo in asymptomatic female KTR with a history of rUTI due to Escherichia coli to assess safety, tolerability, and feasibility of this approach, possible efficacy, and changes in the gut and urinary microbiome during the 180 days of the study. This highly innovative and impactful proposal will provide proof of concept data and also inform the design of a subsequent larger phase III clinical trial of phage therapy for rUTI treatment in KTR and will have broad downstream effects within the fields of infectious diseases and transplantation.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT06409819

Run by

University of California, San Diego

People needed

32

Starts

2025-06-15

Expected to finish

2027-03-01

Last updated by the study team

2025-08-14

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: female. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Female kidney transplant recipients, aged 18 and older with a confirmed diagnosis of a history of recurring UTI with E. coli as their typical uropathogen.
• Two urine culture proven UTIs in prior 6 months or three in prior 12 months due to E coli. UTI is defined as any change in symptoms from baseline urinary comfort (dysuria, hematuria, abdominal/flank pain, increased urinary frequency) or systemic signs of infection (fever, chills, systemic inflammatory reaction syndrome etc.) associated with a positive urine culture with bacterial growth of ≥104 colony forming units/mL).
• Ability to self-administer study drug (or a family member that will do so) and willing to adhere to the phage therapy regimen.
• For participants able to become pregnant: use of highly effective contraception for at least 1 month prior to screening and agreement to use such a method during study participation and for an additional 6 months after the end of phage therapy administration.
• Provision of signed and dated informed consent form
• Stated willingness to comply with all study procedures and availability for the duration of the study.

You may not qualify if…

• Presents with hardware in the urinary tract (e.g. stent, percutaneous nephrostomy, chronic urinary catheter).
• Recipient of >1 kidney transplant.
• Recipient of Ileal conduit.
• Recipient of surgical neobladder.
• Diagnosed with chronic urinary retention requiring self-catheterization.
• Anatomic cause for rUTI such as ureteral stenosis.
• Within the first 3 months of kidney transplant.
• Venous access sites or in whom an existing venous access site needs to be preserved for future need (as per the participant's transplant nephrologist/ surgeon)
• Diagnosed with active cytomegalovirus or BK virus infections.
• Current pregnancy, actively trying to conceive, or lactating.
• Known allergic reactions to phage products.
• Prisoners or individuals without decisional capacity.

Where it is running

• University of California, San Diego — La Jolla, California, United States (enrolling)

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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