NiaMIT Continuation With Early-stage Mitochondrial Myopathy Patients

Summary

The most frequent form of adult-onset mitochondrial disorders is mitochondrial myopathy, often manifesting with progressive external ophthalmoplegia (PEO), progressive muscle weakness and exercise intolerance. Mitochondrial myopathy is often caused by single heteroplasmic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletions or multiple mtDNA deletions, the former being sporadic and latter caused by mutations in nuclear-encoded proteins of mtDNA maintenance. Currently, no curative treatment exists for this disease. However, an NAD+ precursor vitamin B3 has been demonstrated to give power to diseased mitochondria in animal studies by increasing intracellular levels of NAD+, the important cofactor required for the cellular energy metabolism. Vitamin B3 exists in several forms: nicotinic acid (niacin), nicotinamide, and nicotinamide riboside. Nicotinamide riboside has been shown to prevent and improve disease symptoms in several mouse models of mitochondrial myopathy. In addition, the investigators have previously observed that treatment with another form of vitamin B3, niacin, improved NAD+ deficiency and muscle performance in mitochondrial myopathy patients.

In this study, the form of vitamin B3, niacin, is used to activate dysfunctional mitochondria and to rescue signs of mitochondrial myopathy in early-stage patients. Of the vitamin B3 forms, niacin, is employed, because it has been used in large doses to treat hypercholesterolemia patients, and has a proven safety record in humans. Phenotypically similar mitochondrial myopathy patients are studied, as the investigator's previous expertise indicates that similar presenting phenotypes predict uniform physiological and clinical responses to interventions, despite varying genetic backgrounds. Patients with mitochondrial myopathy, typically harboring a sporadic single mtDNA deletion or a mutation in nuclear mtDNA maintenance gene causing multiple mtDNA deletions, are recruited. In addition, data from healthy controls from the primary NiaMIT study (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03973203) are utilized to analyse the collected data. Clinical examinations and collection of muscle biopsies are performed at the time points 0 and 10 months. Fasting blood samples are collected every second week until 1.5 months, every fourth week until 4 months and thereafter every six weeks until the end of the study. The effects of niacin on disease markers, muscle mitochondrial biogenesis, muscle strength and the metabolism of the whole body are studied in patients and healthy controls.

The hypothesis is that an NAD+ precursor, niacin, will increase intracellular NAD+ levels, improve mitochondrial biogenesis and alleviate the symptoms of mitochondrial myopathy already in early stages of the disease.

Conditions

• Mitochondrial Myopathies

Interventions

DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT

Niacin

The dose for a slow-released form of niacin will be 500-1000 mg/day. The daily niacin dose, 250 mg/day, is gradually escalated by 250 mg/month so that the full dose is reached after 2 months. The intervention time with the full niacin dose is 8 months and subsequently total intervention time 10 months.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Helsinki University Central Hospital

  collaborator OTHER

• Institute for Molecular Medicine

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Helsinki

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Anu Suomalainen Wartiovaara, MD, PhD · Research Program Unit, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

17 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-02-11

Primary Completion

2020-09-18

Completion

2020-09-18

Countries

• Finland

Study Locations