A systematic mapping review of therapeutic clinical trials in dengue

Tran Bang Huyen, Angela McBride, Tun-Linn Thein, Khoi Minh Le, Tran Luu, Nguyen Quang Huy, Eli Harriss, Matthew JW Kain, Jonathan Cattrall, Caitlin Naylor, Ho Quang Chanh, Nguyen Lam Vuong, Daniel Munblit, Po-Ying Chia, Phung Khanh Lam, James A Watson and Sophie Yacoub

PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2026, vol. 20, issue 6, 1-37

Abstract: Background: Dengue is a growing public health threat with increasing case numbers globally. Despite the substantial burden, there are no licensed therapeutics for patients with dengue. To inform the design of large-scale practice-changing clinical trials and to assess the feasibility of an individual patient data platform for meta-analysis, we conducted a systematic mapping review of clinical trials evaluating dengue therapeutics. Our aims were to characterise published and registered dengue therapeutic trials, describe their endpoints, and assess study design quality and internal validity to inform feasibility of meta-analysis and future research. Methods: We systematically searched Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid EMBASE, WHO ICTRP and ClinicalTrials.gov for prospective clinical trials evaluating therapeutics in patients with symptomatic dengue. Two independent reviewers screened records using Covidence. Data were extracted into a REDCap database, and risk of bias was assessed using the ROB-2 and ROBINS-I tools to describe trial design rigour. Descriptive analyses summarised the interventions, trial characteristics, study populations, and primary endpoints. This systematic review was pre-registered with PROSPERO (CRD42023469022). Results & discussion: A total of 121 clinical studies were identified, comprising 72 published trials and 49 registered but unpublished studies. Interventions were categorised according to the authors’ proposed mechanism of action: antiviral (n = 10), host-directed (HDT, n = 34), supportive (n = 31), or undefined (n = 46). Aside from the studies of supportive therapies (n = 31) and unpublished studies (n = 37) which were only reviewed for their primary outcomes, 53 publications remained for review of therapeutic efficacy. Methodological concerns were common – 24 of 53 published trials (45%) were classified as having high or critical risk of bias. Corticosteroids were the most frequently evaluated intervention, involving a total of 944 randomised patients. The primary endpoints used in both antiviral and HDT trials were highly heterogeneous, limiting comparability. The combination of methodological concerns and non-standardised endpoints precluded meta-analysis for any intervention. No single treatment had sufficient or consistent evidence to support recommendations for use in clinical practice. Conclusions: Our findings highlight a remarkably sparse evidence base for dengue therapeutics and a lack of standardised, clinically meaningful endpoints. These factors have hindered progress in evaluating candidate treatments and limited the potential for individual patient data meta-analyses. Large, high-quality trials - powered for harmonised and clinically relevant endpoints - are urgently needed to advance the development of effective therapies for dengue. Author summary: Dengue is a viral infection spread by mosquitoes that causes approximately 100 million symptomatic cases worldwide each year. Despite this growing global burden, there are still no approved drugs to treat the virus itself or the inflammation it causes in the body. To assess the current state of treatment options and guide future research, we systematically reviewed all clinical trials that have tested potential treatments for dengue. We also looked at whether data from past studies could be combined to reveal new insights. We identified 121 studies covering diverse treatments. The overall quality of the studies were low. Most were small, early-phase trials using inconsistent methods, which made it impossible to combine results in a meaningful way or draw firm conclusions about effectiveness. No treatment had enough consistent evidence to recommend for clinical use. Our findings show that research on dengue therapeutics has been fragmented, underpowered, and limited by non-standardised outcomes. Moving forward, the dengue research community needs to coordinate large, standardized trials. By harmonizing how we measure success, researchers can generate the robust evidence needed to improve patient care.

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pntd00:0014382

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0014382

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