MedTrace Logo

Giant Cell Arteritis and Anakinra Trial

NCT02902731 · Status: TERMINATED · Phase: PHASE3 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 30

Last updated 2026-04-02

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

SYNOPSIS The giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most frequent vasculitis in people over 50 years. Despite recent progress and physiopathogenic, corticosteroids remains the standard treatment for decades with a very good initial clinical efficacy but a high relapse rate (nearly 40% to 6,5 months) during its decay. This sensible population is particularly exposed to the side effects of corticosteroids, leading to think about savings strategies. But the association of immunosuppressive therapy and/or anti- TNFα has not demonstrated benefits in terms of efficiency or long-term tolerance to cumulative doses of prednisone. The responsibility of proinflammatory cytokines such as TNFα, IL- 6 and IL-1 has been studied in the pathogenesis of GCA in temporal artery walls and in mouse models. The primary pathogenic role of IL- 1 is based on the increase in serum or nuclear protein itself or that of its mRNA. The study of temporal artery biopsies has shown increased local production of IL- 1β mRNA, IL- 6 and TGFβ (indicative of macrophage activation ) and those of INFɣ and IL 2 (indicative of T lymphocyte activation). Recently, Ly et al (Ly KH JBS 2014) reported the efficacy of anakinra, a recombinant molecule of IL- 1RA specifically blocking the IL- 1 α/β, in three cases GCA refractory to conventional treatments.

Here investigators propose a randomized, multicenter, controlled, double-blind study of anakinra against placebo in addition to corticosteroids in the treatment of GCA.

This study will include 70 patients randomized equally in both arms: reference treatment (prednisone plus placebo) or the experimental treatment (prednisone + anakinra). Treatment with prednisone will be identical in the two arms, namely a dose of 0.7 mg/kg/day orally on day 1, followed by a progressive decrease in the dose pattern depending on the weight. In the experimental arm, dose of anakinra is the one usually used, ie 100 mg/day by subcutaneous injection from day 1 until the end of week 16 (S16). In the reference arm of the treatment, a placebo anakinra is associated with corticosteroid in the same packaging, duration and respecting the double-blind.

Investigators thus hypothesized that the addition of anakinra to corticosteroid compared to placebo added to the latter, will show a significant decrease in GAC relapse rate. Indeed, the challenge of corticosteroid therapy in this disease is not so much a problem of initial effectiveness, than the adverse events related to relapses and steroid dependence.

Conditions

  • Giant Cell Arteritis

Interventions

DRUG

PLACEBO

subcutaneous injection of placebo every day during 16 weeks

DRUG

ANAKINRA

subcutaneous injection of anakinra every day during 16 weeks

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • University Hospital, Caen

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Achille AOUBA, MD PHD · CHU CAEN

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
QUADRUPLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
51 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2017-05-11
Primary Completion
2022-11-25
Completion
2022-11-25

Countries

  • France

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Drugs

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT02902731 on ClinicalTrials.gov