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Kinky Hair SyndromePhase 1/2NCT00001262

Copper Histidine Therapy for Menkes Diseases

A Phase 1/2 study testing Copper Histidine in people with Kinky Hair Syndrome, run by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at 1 site in United States.

Completed

Finished. The study has ended and is not enrolling. Results may be posted on the official record.

Official record
Search all trials

Trial summary

Menkes Disease is a genetic disorder affecting the metabolism of copper. Patient with this disease are both physically and mentally retarded. Menkes disease is usually first detected in the first 2-3 months of life. Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Any age
Conditions the study is for
Kinky Hair Syndrome
What is being tested?
Copper Histidine
Could I receive a placebo?
No, everyone receives an active treatment
How many people
60 participants
Where
1 siteUnited States
Study dates
Jun 1990to Jul 2013
Phase
Phase 1/2
Are there results?
Yes, posted in the registrySummary in the doctors' view

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages Any age
  • All sexes
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Child, Adult, Older adult

Who may be able to join

  • Newborn infants in whom Menkes disease is confirmed on biochemical or molecular grounds and in whom no neurological symptoms are present are eligible for enrollment in this study.

Who cannot join

  • Newly identified patients classified as symptomatic at the time of diagnosis, and affected individuals with mild phenotypes are not currently eligible for this clinical trial.

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country.

United States1 site
  • National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike

    Bethesda, Maryland, 20892

Other trials in United States

About this study

Official title: Early Copper Histidine Therapy in Menkes Disease

Menkes Disease is a genetic disorder affecting the metabolism of copper. Patient with this disease are both physically and mentally retarded. Menkes disease is usually first detected in the first 2-3 months of life. Infant males born with the disease fail to thrive, experience hypothermia, have delayed development, and experience seizures. These infants also have characteristic physical features such as changes of their hair and face. Females may also have changes in hair and skin color, but rarely have significant medical problems.

Appropriate treatment of Menkes Disease requires that the disease be diagnosed early and treatment started before irreversible brain damage occurs. The aim of treatment is to bypass the normal route of absorption of copper through the gastrointestinal tract. Copper must then be delivered to brain cells and be available for use by enzymes.

Read more

Copper histidine is a copper replacement that can be injected directly into the body to avoid absorption through the gastrointestinal tract. However, studies have shown the genetic abnormalities causing Menkes disease cannot simply be corrected by copper replacement injections.

The genetic abnormality causing Menkes disease can vary in its severity. Patients with a genetic abnormality that may still permit some production of the enzymes required to process copper may receive benefit from early treatment with copper replacement. However, patients with severe abnormalities of the genes responsible for copper metabolism may receive no benefit from copper replacement.

The purpose of this study is to continue to evaluate the effects of early copper histidine in Menkes disease patients and to correlate specific molecular defects with responses to treatment.

Read the detailed description

Menkes disease is an X-linked recessive neurodegenerative disorder caused by defects in a gene that encodes an evolutionarily conserved copper-transporting ATPase (ATP7A). Several issues must be addressed in configuring therapeutic strategies for this disorder: (a) affected infants must be identified and treatment commenced very early in life before irreparable neurodegeneration occurs, (b) the block in intestinal absorption of copper must be bypassed, (c) circulating copper must be delivered to the brain, and (d) copper must be available to enzymes within cells that require it as a cofactor.

Very early, pre-symptomatic therapy with copper injections has been associated with improved overall survival and, in some patients - based on their molecular defects, with vastly better neurological outcomes in comparison to the usual natural history of this disorder. The purpose of this study is to continue to provide early copper treatment to other newborn infants diagnosed as having Menkes disease.

Being tested
Copper Histidine
Keywords
Menkes, Copper, X-Linked, Neurodegeneration, ATP7A
Medical subject headings
Menkes Kinky Hair Syndrome, Nerve Degeneration

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

  • Copper HistidineDrug

Study groups in NCT00001262
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
Copper histidineExperimentalNot described
Receives: Drug: Copper Histidine

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Gross Motor Development at 36 Mos of Age or at Death (Mos)

    This was measured based on the Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST) I or II for age-appropriate gross motor development in apparently normal healthy subjects at specific ages (in months). The DDST employs a grid to assess expected developmental milestones in relation to chronologic age.

    Measured: 36 months or death

  2. Fine Motor Adaptive Development at 36 Mos of Age or at Death (Mos)

    This was measured based on the Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST) I or II for age-appropriate fine motor development in apparently normal healthy subjects at specific ages (in months). The DDST employs a grid to assess expected developmental milestones in relation to chronologic age.

    Measured: 36 months or death

  3. Personal-Social Development at 36 Mos of Age or at Death (Mos)

    This was measured based on the Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST) I or II for age-appropriate personal-social development in apparently normal healthy subjects at specific ages (in months). The DDST employs a grid to assess expected developmental milestones in relation to chronologic age.

    Measured: 36 months or death

  4. Language Development at 36 Mos of Age or at Death (Mos)

    This was measured based on the Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST) I or II for age-appropriate language development in apparently normal healthy subjects at specific ages (in months). The DDST employs a grid to assess expected developmental milestones in relation to chronologic age.

    Measured: 36 months or death

Secondary outcomes (3)
  1. Somatic Growth Percentiles at 3 Years of Age (or at Age of Death) - Weight Percentile

    Measured: 36 months or death

  2. Somatic Growth Percentiles at 3 Years of Age (or at Age of Death) - Length Percentile

    Measured: 36 months or death

  3. Somatic Growth Percentiles at 3 Years of Age (or at Age of Death) - Head Circumference Percentile

    Measured: 36 months or death

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted4 Nov 1999 (estimated)
  2. Study startJun 1990
  3. Primary completionJul 2012
  4. Study completionJul 2013

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase 1/2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrolment
60 participants (actual)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT00001262
Sponsor's protocol ID
900149
Other IDs
90-CH-0149
Status last verified
Sep 2015
First submitted
3 Nov 1999
Last updated
30 Oct 2015
Data monitoring committee
Yes

Publications

  • Kaler SG, Buist NR, Holmes CS, Goldstein DS, Miller RC, Gahl WA. Early copper therapy in classic Menkes disease patients with a novel splicing mutation. Ann Neurol. 1995 Dec;38(6):921-8. doi: 10.1002/ana.410380613.

    PubMed 8526465
  • Kaler SG, Holmes CS, Goldstein DS, Tang J, Godwin SC, Donsante A, Liew CJ, Sato S, Patronas N. Neonatal diagnosis and treatment of Menkes disease. N Engl J Med. 2008 Feb 7;358(6):605-14. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa070613.

    PubMed 18256395
  • Kaler SG, Gahl WA, Berry SA, Holmes CS, Goldstein DS. Predictive value of plasma catecholamine levels in neonatal detection of Menkes disease. J Inherit Metab Dis. 1993;16(5):907-8. doi: 10.1007/BF00714295. No abstract available.

    PubMed 8295415
  • Kaler SG, Westman JA, Bernes SM, Elsayed AM, Bowe CM, Freeman KL, Wu CD, Wallach MT. Gastrointestinal hemorrhage associated with gastric polyps in Menkes disease. J Pediatr. 1993 Jan;122(1):93-5. doi: 10.1016/s0022-3476(05)83496-1.

    PubMed 8419622
  • Grange DK, Kaler SG, Albers GM, Petterchak JA, Thorpe CM, DeMello DE. Severe bilateral panlobular emphysema and pulmonary arterial hypoplasia: unusual manifestations of Menkes disease. Am J Med Genet A. 2005 Dec 1;139A(2):151-5. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.a.31001.

    PubMed 16278898
  • Price DJ, Ravindranath T, Kaler SG. Internal jugular phlebectasia in Menkes disease. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2007 Jul;71(7):1145-8. doi: 10.1016/j.ijporl.2007.02.021. Epub 2007 May 4.

    PubMed 17482283
  • Hicks JD, Donsante A, Pierson TM, Gillespie MJ, Chou DE, Kaler SG. Increased frequency of congenital heart defects in Menkes disease. Clin Dysmorphol. 2012 Apr;21(2):59-63. doi: 10.1097/MCD.0b013e32834ea52b.

    PubMed 22134099
  • Kaler SG, Gallo LK, Proud VK, Percy AK, Mark Y, Segal NA, Goldstein DS, Holmes CS, Gahl WA. Occipital horn syndrome and a mild Menkes phenotype associated with splice site mutations at the MNK locus. Nat Genet. 1994 Oct;8(2):195-202. doi: 10.1038/ng1094-195.

    PubMed 7842019
  • Liu PC, Chen YW, Centeno JA, Quezado M, Lem K, Kaler SG. Downregulation of myelination, energy, and translational genes in Menkes disease brain. Mol Genet Metab. 2005 Aug;85(4):291-300. doi: 10.1016/j.ymgme.2005.04.007.

    PubMed 15923132
  • Kaler SG, Das S, Levinson B, Goldstein DS, Holmes CS, Patronas NJ, Packman S, Gahl WA. Successful early copper therapy in Menkes disease associated with a mutant transcript containing a small In-frame deletion. Biochem Mol Med. 1996 Feb;57(1):37-46. doi: 10.1006/bmme.1996.0007.

    PubMed 8812725
  • Tang J, Donsante A, Desai V, Patronas N, Kaler SG. Clinical outcomes in Menkes disease patients with a copper-responsive ATP7A mutation, G727R. Mol Genet Metab. 2008 Nov;95(3):174-81. doi: 10.1016/j.ymgme.2008.06.015. Epub 2008 Aug 26.

    PubMed 18752978
  • Kaler SG, Tang J, Donsante A, Kaneski CR. Translational read-through of a nonsense mutation in ATP7A impacts treatment outcome in Menkes disease. Ann Neurol. 2009 Jan;65(1):108-13. doi: 10.1002/ana.21576.

    PubMed 19194885
  • Kaler SG, Liew CJ, Donsante A, Hicks JD, Sato S, Greenfield JC. Molecular correlates of epilepsy in early diagnosed and treated Menkes disease. J Inherit Metab Dis. 2010 Oct;33(5):583-9. doi: 10.1007/s10545-010-9118-2. Epub 2010 Jul 21.

    PubMed 20652413
  • Desai V, Donsante A, Swoboda KJ, Martensen M, Thompson J, Kaler SG. Favorably skewed X-inactivation accounts for neurological sparing in female carriers of Menkes disease. Clin Genet. 2011 Feb;79(2):176-82. doi: 10.1111/j.1399-0004.2010.01451.x.

    PubMed 20497190
  • Kaler SG. Neurodevelopment and brain growth in classic Menkes disease is influenced by age and symptomatology at initiation of copper treatment. J Trace Elem Med Biol. 2014 Oct;28(4):427-30. doi: 10.1016/j.jtemb.2014.08.008. Epub 2014 Aug 28.

    PubMed 25281031

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

A Phase 1/2 study testing Copper Histidine in people with Kinky Hair Syndrome, run by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at 1 site in United States.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 1 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 30 Oct 2015. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

What does this combined phase mean?

Phase 1 studies test a treatment in a small group of people for the first time or in a new way, mainly to check safety and find the right dose.

Phase 2 studies give the treatment to a larger group to see whether it has the intended effect and to keep checking safety.

Not every study follows the same path, and some studies (observational studies, device studies) have no phase.

Are results available for this study?

Yes. Results are posted in the registry (first posted 30 Oct 2015). A summary is in the For doctors view, and the full results are on ClinicalTrials.gov.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

Gross Motor Development at 36 Mos of Age or at Death (Mos) (time frame: 36 months or death). The study lists 4 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT00001262, which also lists 15 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 30 Oct 2015; AzTrials last refreshed its copy on 6 Nov 2026.

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