Research

Measuring the blood levels of the platelet-derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB) allows researchers to differentiate between patients with adult-onset Pompe disease and those without the disease, and between patients with and without symptoms, a study reports. These findings suggest that monitoring PDGF-BB could help track disease progression and determine…

Rare childhood disorders, including Pompe disease, pose a significant estimated impact on the quality of life of affected children and their parents, a study reports. The study, “Health utilities and parental quality of life effects for three rare conditions tested in newborns,” was published in the Journal of…

With each new advance in medicine comes ethical dilemmas, from fertility treatments and newborn screening, to vaccinations, gene therapies and euthanasia. But rare diseases and the expensive therapies needed to treat them — particularly in an age of scarce economic resources — almost always entail “tragic choices,” warned Avraham Steinberg,…

Rare diseases affect about 30 million Americans — roughly the same number as those with type 2 diabetes. Yet only 5 percent of the estimated 7,000 rare diseases known to science have cures or treatments approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Raising awareness of those illnesses and highlighting…

About 100 scientists, researchers, pharmaceutical executives, and others will converge on Austria’s capital city early next month for the 2nd International Congress on Advanced Treatments in Rare Diseases. The March 4-5 meeting, to take place at the Hilton Am Stadtpark Vienna, features 27 speakers on a variety of disorders…

A woman with late-onset Pompe disease went through two successful pregnancies and births while continuing treatment with Lumizyme (alglucosidase alfa), a case study reports. The woman, however, chose not to breastfeed the infants. The study, “Two successfully completed pregnancies in adult onset Pompe disease,…

The first patient has been dosed in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial evaluating the safety and effects of ACTUS-101, a potential one-time gene therapy for late-onset Pompe disease developed by Actus Therapeutics. The randomized, open-label trial (NCT03533673) is still recruiting for an estimated total of six participants.

G71.01 is, literally, the code for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.  Q93.51 stands for Angelman syndrome, and G40.419 covers generalized and treatment-resistant epilepsies, which groups like Orphanetdefine as including Dravet syndrome. All three designations became official on Oct. 1, 2018, joining some 70,000 other diseases listed in the latest…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration(FDA) is updating its 2015 draft guidelines for drug discovery in rare diseases, with new guidance on natural history— how disorders such as spinal muscle atrophy(SMA) run their course if untreated — the choice of “efficacy endpoints” in clinical trials, and how…

On a Friday the 13th some 20 years ago, 15-month-old Megan Crowley was diagnosed with Pompe disease. A few weeks later, so was her newborn brother, Patrick. Even the doctor who diagnosed the two children didn’t know much about the disease. Before that March day in 1998, he had…