Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41499634›Full record

ArticlePLoS pathogens2026

Evaluating modes of influenza transmission (EMIT-2): Insights from lack of transmission in a controlled transmission trial with naturally infected donors.

Jianyu Lai, Hamed Sobhani, Kristen K Coleman, Shih-Han Sheldon Tai, Filbert Hong, Isabel Sierra Maldonado, Yi Esparza, Kathleen M McPhaul, Shengwei Zhu, Don L DeVoe and 11 more

Registry-linked trialAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PLoS pathogens, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07342556 (EMIT-2b), which is not on this map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT07342556 nanot yet recruitingnot on this map

EMIT-2b: Evaluating Modes of Influenza Transmission Through the Conduct of Controlled Human Influenza Virus Infection Transmission Trials (CHIVITTs)

TypeinterventionalSponsorUniversity of Maryland, College ParkRan2026 to 2026Enrolled80ConditionsInfluenza (Healthy Volunteers)ArmsExposure to Donors with naturally acquired influenza virus infection
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

21 authors.

Jianyu LaiDepartment of Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America.
Hamed SobhaniDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America.
Kristen K ColemanDepartment of Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America.
Shih-Han Sheldon TaiDepartment of Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America.
Filbert HongDepartment of Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America.
Isabel Sierra MaldonadoDepartment of Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America.
Yi EsparzaDepartment of Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America.
Kathleen M McPhaulDepartment of Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America.
Shengwei ZhuDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America.
Don L DeVoeDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America.
Justin R OrtizCenter for Vaccine Development and Global Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America.
Shuo ChenDepartment of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America.
Temima YellinDepartment of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States of America.
Juan Manuel CarrenoDepartment of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States of America.
Florian KrammerDepartment of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States of America.
Benjamin J CowlingSchool of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
Aubree GordonSchool of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America.
Wilbur H ChenCenter for Vaccine Development and Global Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America.
Jelena SrebricDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America.
Donald K MiltonDepartment of Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0550-7834
EMIT-2 Study Team

Funding

Evaluating Modes of Influenza Transmission using a Randomized Controlled Trial (EMIT-2-RCT)U19AI162130 · NIAID · UNIV OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK · PI SREBRIC, JELENA · 2021 to 2025
$15.2M
NIAID NIH HHS U19 AI162130
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

A previous controlled human influenza transmission trial produced minimal transmission using nasal inoculation of an egg adapted virus. Therefore, we implemented a new trial with naturally infected Donors. We recruited healthy Recipients for four, two-week hotel quarantine cohorts and naturally infected, qRT-PCR confirmed Donors for two cohorts. Five Donors (mean age: 21; 80% female; two H1N1, three H3N2, one for cohort 24b and 4 for 24c, Jan-Feb 2024) exposed Recipients (mean age: 36; 54% female, eight in cohort 24b and 3 in 24c) in a hotel room with limited ventilation but a high air recirculation rate. We collected exhaled breath, ambient and personal bioaerosols, fomite swabs, and sera, and analyzed samples using dPCR and fluorescent focus assays, hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) assay, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Compared with previously studied community-acquired influenza cases, we detected viral RNA (44%) and culturable virus (6%) less frequently and measured fewer viral RNA copies (79 - 8.9 × 103 copies/30-min) in Donors' exhaled fine aerosols. One of 23 surface swab samples was culture positive. At admission, 8 of 11 Recipients had HAI titers ≤10 but 9 of 11 had stronger binding antibody responses than Donors against vaccine strains corresponding to Donor viruses. No Recipient developed influenza-like illness, PCR-positive respiratory samples, or serological evidence of infection. Potential explanations and insights regarding lack of transmission include importance of cough and seasonal variation in viral aerosol shedding by Donors, of potential cross-reactive immunity in middle-aged Recipients with decades of exposure, and of exposure to concentrated exhaled breath plumes limited by rapid air mixing from environmental controls that distributed aerosols evenly. Future trials over multiple seasons, Donors that cough, younger recipients, and environments that preserve normal exhaled breath plumes will be required to observe transmission from naturally infected Donors under controlled conditions and generate new insights into influenza transmission dynamics.

Indexed as

Influenza A Virus, H1N1 SubtypeInfluenza A Virus, H3N2 SubtypeInfluenza, HumanAdultFemaleHuman Challenge Trials as TopicHumansMaleYoung Adult

Identifiers

PMID41499634
PMCPMC12799188

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.