Azithromycin

Scientific justification : Variants in surfactant-related genes (SRG) explain approximately 6% of familial pulmonary fibrosis (FPF).
The pathophysiology is unknown and seems to involve endoplasmic reticulum stress in type 2 alveolar epithelial cells.
Variable improvement in the prognosis of childhood and adult interstitial lung disease (ILD) associated with a variant of a SRG, initially reported to be lethal within months of diagnosis, has been observed since the consensual use of prednisone, azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine targeting endoplasmic reticulum stress, without demonstration of the efficacy of any of these treatments alone or in combination.
The investigators hypothesize that a treatment combining prednisone, azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine is safe and could improve the prognosis of adult patients with ILD associated with SRG variant.
Main objective and primary endpoint : Main objective:
Evaluate the efficacy of triple immunomodulatory therapy (prednisone, azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine) for 12 months in patients with ILD associated with a variant of a surfactant-related gene.
Primary endpoint:
Difference in forced vital capacity decline between the 2 groups at one year.
Secondary objectives and endpoints : Secondary objectives:
1. tolerance of the triple therapy,
2. correlation between the respiratory, radiological and clinical functional response,
3. quality of life of the patients,
4. overall survival, transplant-free survival, exacerbation free-survival, hospitalization-free survival
Secondary endpoints:
1. Clinical and biological tolerance (occurrence of an adverse effect during treatment), ECG (at 3, 6, 9, 12 months after randomization) (only HCQ or AZI patients) and ophthalmological (at one year after randomization)
2. Thoracic CT scan and PFT at 6 months and one year after randomization
3. Quality of life questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30, v3.0) at 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and one year after randomization,
4. Collection of vital status, lung transplantation, hospitalization for pulmonary and non-pulmonary causes and episodes of exacerbation at each visit until the end of follow-up 12 months after randomization.
Design of the study : Multicenter, randomized, controlled, two-arm, parallel, open-label superiority study comparing triple immunomodulatory therapy (prednisone, azithromycin, and hydroxychloroquine) to standard of care
Category : Category 2
Population of study participants: Patients aged over 18 years with ILD and SRG variant
Number of participants included : 30
Design of the study : Multicenter, randomized, controlled, two-arm, parallel, open-label superiority study comparing triple immunomodulatory therapy (prednisone, azithromycin, and hydroxychloroquine) to standard of care.

Nearly half of child deaths occur during the neonatal period, and 80% of those occur in babies with low birthweight. Although tremendous progress has been made towards reducing under-five mortality globally, declines in neonatal mortality lag behind those observed in older children. Low birthweight babies are at increased risk of poor outcomes compared to those who are term-appropriate for gestational age, including mortality, stunting, and growth failure. Recent evidence has demonstrated that the incidence of wasting and linear growth failure is highest between birth and 3 months of age, substantially earlier than previously thought. Interventions are urgently needed to improve outcomes in low birthweight babies; however, these interventions must not interfere with breastfeeding and thus some well-established interventions used to treat or prevent malnutrition in older children cannot be considered. The investigators recently demonstrated that biannual mass azithromycin distribution reduces all-cause childhood mortality by approximately 25% in infants aged 1-5 months, with stronger effects seen in underweight infants. This study did not include neonates due to the risk of infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (IHPS) that has been hypothesized to be associated with macrolide use during early infancy. However, our study team documented only a single case of IHPS among 21,833 neonates enrolled in a trial of azithromycin versus placebo administered to neonates aged 8-27 days for prevention of infant mortality, documenting no major risk of IHPS associated with azithromycin. Here, the investigators propose an individually randomized trial where participants will receive a single oral dose of azithromycin (administered either during the neontal period or 21 days after enrollment), two does of oral azithromycin spaced 21 days apart, or two doses of placebo to evalute if azithromycin improves nutritional outcome and reduces infectious burden among neonates aged 1-27 days who are either low birthweight (<2500 g at birth) or underweight (weight-for-age Z-score < -2 at enrollment). The primary outcome will be weight-for-age Z-score at 6 months of age compared between arms. The investigators anticipate that the results of this study will provide definitive evidence on azithromycin as an early intervention for low birthweight/underweight neonates, who are at the highest risk of adverse outcomes.