Genome-wide Analyses Identify KIF5A as a Novel ALS Gene
© 2018 Elsevier Inc.
ATXN2 trinucleotide repeat length correlates with risk of ALS
We investigated a CAG trinucleotide repeat expansion in the ATXN2 gene in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Two new case-control studies, a British dataset of 1474 ALS cases and 567 controls, and a Dutch dataset of 1328 ALS cases and 691 controls were analyzed. In addition, to increase power, we systematically searched PubMed for case-control studies published after 1 August 2010 that investigated the association between ATXN2 intermediate repeats and ALS. We conducted a meta-analysis of the new and existing studies for the relative risks of ATXN2 intermediate repeat alleles of between 24 and 34 CAG trinucleotide repeats and ALS. There was an overall increased risk of ALS for those carry…
NEO1 and NEO-EXT studies: Long-term safety of repeat avalglucosidase alfa dosing for 4.5 years in late-onset Pompe disease patients
Safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and exploratory efficacy of repeat avalglucosidase alfa dosing (5, 10, or 20 mg/kg qow) for 6 months were evaluated in NEO1 (NCT01898364) in late-onset Pompe disease patients either treatment-naive (Naive) or having received alglucosidase alfa for ≥9 months (Switch). In NEO-EXT (NCT02032524), an ongoing NEO1 extension, long-term safety and pharmacokinetics of repeat avalglucosidase alfa dosing will be monitored over 6 years. Interim safety results after 4.5 years of NEO-EXT are reported here. Mean ages at NEO1 enrollment were: Naive: 44.8 (SD:20.3, range:20-78) years and Switch: 46.7 (SD:14.1, range:21-68) years. Of the 24 NEO1 parti…
Low frequency and rare coding variation contributes to multiple sclerosis risk
AbstractMultiple sclerosis is a common, complex neurological disease, where almost 20% of risk heritability can be attributed to common genetic variants, including >230 identified by genome-wide association studies (Patsopoulos et al., 2017). Multiple strands of evidence suggest that the majority of the remaining heritability is also due to the additive effects of individual variants, rather than epistatic interactions between these variants, or mutations exclusive to individual families. Here, we show in 68,379 cases and controls that as much as 5% of this heritability is explained by low-frequency variation in gene coding sequence. We identify four novel genes driving MS risk independe…
Safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and exploratory efficacy of the novel enzyme replacement therapy avalglucosidase alfa (neoGAA) in treatment-naive and alglucosidase alfa-treated patients with late-onset Pompe disease: A phase 1, open-label, multicenter, multinational, ascending dose study
This multicenter/multinational, open-label, ascending-dose study (NCT01898364) evaluated safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and exploratory efficacy of repeat-dose avalglucosidase alfa (neoGAA), a second-generation, recombinant acid α-glucosidase replacement therapy, in late-onset Pompe disease (LOPD). Patients ≥18 years, alglucosidase alfa naïve (Naïve) or previously receiving alglucosidase alfa for ≥9 months (Switch), with baseline FVC ≥50% predicted and independently ambulatory, received every-other-week avalglucosidase alfa 5, 10, or 20 mg/kg over 24 weeks. 9/10 Naïve and 12/14 Switch patients completed the study. Avalglucosidase alfa was well-tolerated; no deaths…