Active clinical trials for "Muscular Dystrophies"

The scientific aim of the present extension study is to monitor long-term safety and tolerability of idebenone in patients with DMD. Furthermore, the long-term effect on respiratory, cardiac and motor functions, and skeletal muscle strength/function will be assessed.

Idebenone is a synthetic analogue of coenzyme Q10 and is a powerful antioxidant and essential constituent of the process of energy production on the cellular level. It can protect mitochondria from oxidative damage and boost their impaired function. It is thought that this mechanism will slow decline in heart function that is part of the disease process of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). It is possible that patients may benefit in terms of muscle strength and respiratory function. This pilot trial is designed to investigate this.

The OCULO-Pharyngeal Muscular Dystrophy (OPMD) is a late onset hereditary muscle disease which is characterised by the selective affection of the pharyngeal muscles resulting in swallowing disorders, and by a ptosis from the dysfunction of the levator palpebral superiors muscles. Swallowing disorders are determinant in the prognosis of the disease, and potentially life-threatening deglutition, due to aspiration and denutrition. Degenerative dystrophy of the pharyngeal muscles causes difficulties to prepulse the food bolus in the pharynx, and the decreased relaxation of the cricopharyngeal muscle induced by the disease leads to blockage of food in the upper esophageal sphincter. The most common treatment for the dysphagia in OPMD is a myotomy of the upper esophageal sphincter muscles. However, although this will relax the constriction of the upper esophageal sphincter muscles and improve transitory the swallowing, it will not prevent the progressive degradation of the pharyngeal muscles. This progressive loss of contractility will eventually result in aspiration and severe difficulty in swallowing, increasing risk of aspiration pneumonia and severe weight loss which are the most common causes of mortality in OPMD patients. The protocol which we are proposing is a graft of autologous cell muscles (myoblasts) isolated from unaffected limb muscles into the pharyngeal muscles of patients diagnosed as suffering from OPMD. Our aim is to improve both swallowing and the contractile deficit generated by the dystrophic pharyngeal muscles. A myotomy of the upper esophageal sphincter will be carried out at the same time as the myoblast transplantation, since we have already validated the improvement resulting from this surgery. Advantages of this new therapy in OPMD is the autograft, without risks of rejection, and the graft of myoblasts into the dystrophic pharyngeal muscles, above the myotomy of the upper esophageal sphincter muscles. This model of cellular therapy has been studied through a preclinical study performed in dogs, allowing to valid the procedure and its safety, as well as to study the survival myoblasts grafted in the pharyngeal muscles. This protocol is proposed for OPMD patients; it is firstly a safety study of both autograft and surgical procedure. In addition, the autograft may improve the swallowing disorders and life-threatening complications induced by aspiration and weight loss, resulting in a potential individual benefit.

The specific aim of this Phase I/II study is to assess the safety of intravenous administered Morpholino oligomer directed against exon 51 (AVI-4658 PMO).

The purpose of this study is to determine the safety of giving intravenous (IV) gentamicin to boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy who have stop codon mutations.

The purpose of this phase I/II, multicenter, safety trial is to study MYO-029 in adult patients with muscular dystrophy.

In some patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the disease is caused by a nonsense mutation (premature stop codon) in the gene that makes the dystrophin protein. PTC124 has been shown to partially restore dystrophin production in animals with DMD due to a nonsense mutation. The main purpose of this study is to understand whether PTC124 can safely increase functional dystrophin protein in the muscles of patients with DMD due to a nonsense mutation.

The purpose of this study is to see if male children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) have changes in strength when given the drug Pentoxifylline as a rescue treatment. A total of 64 subjects are expected to participate through all other centers of the Cooperative International Neuromuscular Research Group (CINRG) worldwide. The primary purpose of this study is to see whether the addition of pentoxifylline to a steroid regimen is effective in treating deteriorating muscle strength by comparing the muscle strength of PTX treated subjects and placebo treated subjects.

This is a study to determine whether albuterol or oxandrolone, alone or in combination, are able to increase strength and muscle mass in patients with FSHD. It also will determine if albuterol given in "pulsed" fashion will have more effect than when given continuously.

OBJECTIVES: I. Determine whether albuterol increases strength in patients with facioscapulohumeral dystrophy as measured by quantitative voluntary isometric contraction testing. II. Determine whether albuterol increases muscle mass in this patient population as determined by 24 hour urinary creatinine excretion and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). III. Examine the long term safety of albuterol in this patient population.