Clinical trial NCT00390104: Molecular Analysis of Patients With Neuromuscular Disease
Official title: Molecular Analysis of Nucleic Acids Derived From Patients With Neuromuscular Disease and Their Family Members
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: RECRUITING
Conditions: Neuromuscular; Disorder, Hereditary
Duchenne/Becker Muscular Dystrophy
Limb-girdle Muscular Dystrophy
Keywords: Neuromuscular Disease
Muscle weakness
Muscle atrophy
Lead sponsor: Boston Children's Hospital
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
First posted: 2006-10-19
Enrollment: 1000
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 1
Maximum age (years): 100
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: FAMILY_BASED
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Families will be ascertained world-wide as the muscular dystrophies are a pan-ethinic group of diseases.

Brief summary: The purpose of this study is to identify new genes responsible for neuromuscular disorders and study muscle tissue of patient with known neuromuscular disease, as well as their family members. We are interested in recruiting many types of neuromuscular disease including; Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD), and limb-girdle muscle dystrophy (LGMD). There are still many patients diagnosed with muscular dystrophy with no causative gene implicated in their disease. Using molecular genetics to unravel basis of these neuromuscular disorders will lead to more accurate diagnosis/prognosis of these disorders which will lead to potential therapies.

Detailed description: We are looking to discover new disease genes responsible for the neuromuscular diseases found in our participants and their families. Our research lab has a long history of identifying novel genes responsible for various forms of neuromuscular disease including; DMD gene, the sarcoglycans, obscurin, and filamin. Each discovery has resulted in advances in our ability to develop diagnostic tests which benefit patients and their families by providing accurate diagnosis, presymptomatic and/or prenatal testing. Genotype-phenotype correlation studies have increased our understanding of the natural history of these rare disorders benefiting patients through better prognostic determinations by clinicians. Biochemical and pathological analysis of muscle biopsy samples in patients with known and unknown types of neuromuscular disease has led to new insights into disease pathophysiology, which we hope will aid in finding new treatments.

Eligibility criteria: The samples used in this study will be derived from individuals at risk for, or suffering from, neuromuscular disease, generally resulting in clinical weakness of one or more muscle groups and their family members.

Inclusion criteria:

1. having a clinical and/or pathological diagnosis of a muscular dystrophy
2. being the first degree relative of someone with such a diagnosis
3. having had a muscle biopsy if diagnosed with a neuromuscular disease
4. willingness to provide a skin biopsy for research only

Exclusion Criteria:

1. not having a neuromuscular diagnosis in you or a family member
2. not wishing to participate
3. being incapable of giving consent and not having a legal guardian willing or able to do so

Primary outcomes:
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Boston
country: United States
facility: Boston Children's Hospital
state: Massachusetts
Study officials:
affiliation: Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School
name: Louis M Kunkel, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Saha M, Reddy HM, Salih MA, Estrella E, Jones MD, Mitsuhashi S, Cho KA, Suzuki-Hatano S, Rizzo SA, Hamad MH, Mukhtar MM, Hamed AA, Elseed MA, Lek M, Valkanas E, MacArthur DG, Kunkel LM, Pacak CA, Draper I, Kang PB. Impact of PYROXD1 deficiency on cellular respiration and correlations with genetic analyses of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy in Saudi Arabia and Sudan. Physiol Genomics. 2018 Nov 1;50(11):929-939. doi: 10.1152/physiolgenomics.00036.2018. Epub 2018 Aug 31.
citation: Vieira NM, Spinazzola JM, Alexander MS, Moreira YB, Kawahara G, Gibbs DE, Mead LC, Verjovski-Almeida S, Zatz M, Kunkel LM. Repression of phosphatidylinositol transfer protein alpha ameliorates the pathology of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Jun 6;114(23):6080-6085. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1703556114. Epub 2017 May 22.
citation: Reddy HM, Cho KA, Lek M, Estrella E, Valkanas E, Jones MD, Mitsuhashi S, Darras BT, Amato AA, Lidov HG, Brownstein CA, Margulies DM, Yu TW, Salih MA, Kunkel LM, MacArthur DG, Kang PB. The sensitivity of exome sequencing in identifying pathogenic mutations for LGMD in the United States. J Hum Genet. 2017 Feb;62(2):243-252. doi: 10.1038/jhg.2016.116. Epub 2016 Oct 6.