Clinical Trial: Betaine and Peroxisome Biogenesis Disorders
Study Status: Completed
Recruit Status: Completed
Study Type: Interventional
Official Title: A Pilot, Open Label Trial Assessing the Safety and Efficacy of Betaine in Children With Peroxisome Biogenesis Disorders.
Brief Summary: The PBD are a rare group of inherited disorders due to the failure to form functional cellular peroxisomes. Most patients have progressive hearing and visual loss, leading to deafness and blindness, as well as neurological deterioration. There are no therapies for this disorder. A misfolded protein with residual function, PEX1-Gly843Asp, represents one third of all mutant alleles. Using patient cell lines with this mutation, we reported the recovery of peroxisome functions by treatment with Betaine, acting as a nonspecific chemical chaperone for the misfolded PEX1 protein. Betaine, or trimethylglycine, is a Health Canada and FDA approved orphan drug for the treatment of homocystinuria and is used by us safely and regularly in genetic medicine. We will perform a 6 month pilot study with 12 patients to test the hypothesis that Betaine, at recommended doses, can recover peroxisome biochemical functions in blood.
Detailed Summary:
Peroxisome biogenesis disorders (PBD) are a group of inherited conditions caused by faulty assembly of peroxisomes, structures located inside cells that regulate levels of important fats and lipids in the body. When there is faulty peroxisome assembly, as in PBD, these important fats and lipids either accumulate or are not made. There is no specific treatment for these disorders, and management is supportive. In order to complement existing supportive therapies, physicians and researchers are still actively looking for new treatments acting on the root cause of PBD: the peroxisome function. To identify drugs that help recover peroxisome function a group of scientists developed a laboratory-based research test aimed at reviewing the activity of the large number of potential treatments. Using this test, they have uncovered that Betaine can improve the function of the peroxisome, when the defect is caused by a PEX1-Gly843Asp mutation, and as such may improve the overall health of child suffering from PBD.
Betaine is a medication already available as a powder for oral solution, for another rare disease. It is approved in many countries, including Health Canada for Canada and the Food and Drug Administration for the USA. Paediatric genetic physicians are used to prescribing this medication and know it well.
At the current stage of scientific knowledge, it is a critical next step to evaluate the benefit of betaine in children having a PBD due to a PEX1-Gly843Asp mutation, to ensure that the medication is safe and to measure the level of improvement of the function of the peroxisome.
Thus, the principal objective of the study is to determine the improvement in the key peroxisome functions (plasma very long chain fatty acid profiles red cell plasmalogen levels, plasma pipecolic aci
Sponsor: McGill University Health Center
Current Primary Outcome: Peroxisome Biochemical Functions as Measured by Plasma Very Long Chain Fatty Acid [ Time Frame: 6 months ]
Original Primary Outcome: Peroxisome Biochemical Functions as Measured by Plasma Very Long Chain Fatty Acid [ Time Frame: 6 months ]
Current Secondary Outcome: Developmental Status [ Time Frame: 6 months ]
Original Secondary Outcome: Growth developmental status [ Time Frame: 6 months ]
Information By: McGill University Health Center
Dates:
Date Received: March 29, 2013
Date Started: March 2013
Date Completion:
Last Updated: May 20, 2016
Last Verified: May 2016
