Lindsey Shapiro, PhD, science writer —

Most children and adolescents with Pompe disease adapted well to living with the chronic condition and had generally good emotional well-being, according to a small interview study involving patients and caregivers in Europe. Still, patients reported frustrations related to physical disabilities and their social impacts, as well as the…

A new noninvasive imaging technique was found to be better than standard approaches like MRI or ultrasound for visualizing diseased muscles in people with late-onset Pompe disease (LOPD), according to a recent study. The technique, called multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT), uses light and sound waves to visualize the deeper…

Damage to the blood vessels in the brain is a common but under-recognized manifestation of late-onset Pompe disease (LOPD), according to a recent study from China. Among a small group of LOPD patients, various abnormalities were observed that affected both small and large blood vessels. Given the observed prevalence…

Quantitative MRI (qMRI) imaging of the muscles is a useful technique for identifying signs of compromised muscle health in people with neuromuscular conditions like Pompe disease, according to a small study. The study identified specific patterns of qMRI changes in the thigh muscles of people with late-onset Pompe…

Dysfunction of the phrenic nerve, which is important for controlling breathing, was observed in a small study of late-onset Pompe disease (LOPD) patients who had ongoing respiratory dysfunction despite enzyme replacement therapy (ERT). “Our study provide new insights regarding respiratory mechanisms in LOPD,” the researchers wrote. Should their…

A powerful imaging technique called high-resolution intravital microscopy, or IVM, may be a useful tool for visualizing and quantifying the effectiveness of investigational treatments in mouse models of Pompe disease, according to recent research. The approach allows for cellular changes in muscles to be visualized in live animals. Using…

Infantile-onset Pompe disease (IOPD) patients who develop antibodies against enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) exhibit a distinct immune profile from those who don’t, according to recent research. Patients who developed these so-called high and sustained antibody titers, or HSAT, were skewed toward a type 2 immune profile, which the…

People with late-onset Pompe disease (LOPD) treated with Nexviazyme (avalglucosidase alfa) may be more than twice as likely to benefit from treatment than those on Lumizyme (alglucosidase alfa), a new analysis of data from the Phase 3 COMET trial suggests. The analysis employed a method called the…

More late-onset Pompe disease (LOPD) patients treated with Nexviazyme (avalglucosidase alfa) achieved clinically meaningful improvements in patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures related to symptoms, daily life impacts, and life quality than those treated with Lumizyme (alglucosidase alfa). That is according to new analyses from the COMET Phase 3 clinical…

A stem-cell based gene therapy that’s modified for better entry into muscle cells was seen to normalize protein levels in the skeletal muscle tissue of a mouse model of Pompe disease, according to a new report. The Pompe mice exhibited altered levels of hundreds of proteins — including ones…