Neuromuscular Disease News and Research

RSS

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy commonly misdiagnosed

Half of patients referred to a specialist centre with a diagnosis of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy do not actually have the condition, report researchers.

5 Aug 2015

Isis Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca to develop antisense therapies for cardiovascular, metabolic, renal diseases

AstraZeneca and Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced a strategic collaboration to discover and develop antisense therapies for cardiovascular, metabolic and renal diseases.

3 Aug 2015

NEJM publishes positive clinical results from Phase 2 clinical study of volanesorsen

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the leader in RNA-targeted therapeutics, and Akcea Therapeutics, its wholly owned subsidiary, announced today that The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) has published positive clinical results from a Phase 2 clinical study evaluating volanesorsen (formerly ISIS-APOCIII Rx) in patients with very high to severely high triglycerides.

30 Jul 2015

Isis Pharmaceuticals receives $2.15 million milestone payment to advance ISIS-SMN Rx study in children with SMA

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that it has earned a $2.15 million milestone payment from Biogen related to advancing the ongoing pivotal Phase 3 study (CHERISH) evaluating ISIS-SMN Rx in children with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

14 Jul 2015

Akcea Therapeutics obtains FDA Orphan Drug Designation for volanesorsen

Akcea Therapeutics, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted Orphan Drug Designation to volanesorsen (ISIS-APOCIIIRx) for the treatment of patients with Familial Chylomicronemia Syndrome (FCS).

6 Jul 2015

Isis Pharmaceuticals provides update on ISIS-SMN Rx Phase 2 study in children with SMA

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today provided an update on children with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) who have completed the open-label, Phase 2 multiple-dose study of ISIS-SMN Rx and are continuing to receive treatment in an open-label extension (OLE) study.

22 Jun 2015

Isis Pharmaceuticals provides update on ISIS-SMN Rx Phase 2 clinical study in infants with Type I SMA

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today provided an update on its ongoing open-label Phase 2 clinical study of ISIS-SMN Rx in infants with Type I spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

11 Jun 2015

Immune system linked to death of motor neurons in Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

A previously unknown link between the immune system and the death of motor neurons in Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, has been discovered by scientists at the CHUM Research Centre and the University of Montreal. The finding paves the way to a whole new approach for finding a drug that can cure or at least slow the progression of such neurodegenerative diseases as ALS, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases.

10 Jun 2015

Mount Sinai researchers present landmark studies at AATS meeting

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai researchers presented several landmark studies at the 2015 American Association for Thoracic Surgery meeting in Seattle.

5 May 2015

TGen scientists discover the likely cause of rare type of muscle weakness in six children

Scientists at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), using state-of-the-art genetic technology, have discovered the likely cause of a child's rare type of severe muscle weakness.

10 Apr 2015

Isis Pharmaceuticals announces positive results from ISIS-ANGPTL3Rx Phase 1 study

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today positive results from a Phase 1 study with ISIS-ANGPTL3Rx. In this study, healthy volunteers treated with ISIS-ANGPTL3Rx achieved dose-dependent, statistically significant reductions in angiopoietin-like 3 (ANGPTL3) of up to 93 percent with a mean reduction of up to 84 percent from baseline (p<0.001).

23 Mar 2015

Researchers reveal role of abdominal muscles in muscular dystrophy process

The muscular dystrophies are known to target various muscle groups differentially. In addition to making limb muscles weak, muscular dystrophy (MD) can also lead to decreased function of specific muscles involved in respiration causing breathing difficulties as well as leading to cardiac problems.

27 Feb 2015

Isis Pharmaceuticals announces positive results from Phase 1 study of ISIS-PKK Rx for HAE treatment

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today positive results from a Phase 1 study with ISIS-PKKRx. In this study, healthy volunteers treated with ISIS-PKKRx achieved dose-dependent reductions of up to 95 percent in prekallikrein, or PKK. ISIS-PKKRx is a RNA-targeted antisense drug designed to inhibit the production of PKK for the prophylactic treatment of hereditary angioedema (HAE).

24 Feb 2015

Isis receives $5 million from Biogen Idec to develop drugs for neurological disorders

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today it has earned a $5 million milestone payment from Biogen Idec associated with the validation of an undisclosed target to treat a neurological disorder under its broad strategic collaboration with Biogen Idec to develop drugs to treat patients with neurological disorders.

10 Feb 2015

Isis receives $10 million from Biogen Idec to begin IND-supporting studies of ISIS-BIIB4 Rx

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that it has earned a $10 million milestone payment from Biogen Idec for initiating the investigational new drug (IND)-supporting studies of ISIS-BIIB4 Rx.

5 Feb 2015

Study demonstrates therapeutic potential of new class of synthetic oligonucleotides for DMD treatment

Research efforts associating scientists from the CNRS, UVSQ and INSERM within the Laboratoire END-ICAP, working in collaboration with a team from the University of Bern, has demonstrated the therapeutic potential of a new class of synthetic oligonucleotides in the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) using RNA "surgery".

4 Feb 2015

Isis announces top-line results from ISIS-PTP1B Rx Phase 2 study in type 2 diabetes patients

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today top-line results from a Phase 2 study of ISIS-PTP1B Rx in patients with type 2 diabetes. In the Phase 2 study patients treated with ISIS-PTP1B Rx achieved statistically significant reductions in body weight and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c).

3 Feb 2015

AMRI awarded NIH contract for drug development services

AMRI today announced it received a 10-year federal contract award from the National Institutes of Health for drug development and manufacturing services. This NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke award will support NIH's Drug Manufacturing and Formulation Program (DMFP), which is a component of the Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network (BPN).

19 Jan 2015

Therapy Box releases app that allows people with limited vocal ability to use own voices

The UK-based Therapy Box has released the first app that allows people who have limited vocal ability or are losing their voices due to ALS and other disabling conditions to replace generic text-to-speech synthesis with a synthesizer based on their own voice. The app breaks new ground via the integration of ModelTalker, a program developed by Tim Bunnell, PhD and colleagues at the Nemours Speech Research Laboratory in Wilmington, DE.

15 Jan 2015

Isis Pharmaceuticals begins ISIS-DMPK Rx clinical study in DM1 patients

Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that it has initiated a study for ISIS-DMPK Rx in patients with Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 (DM1). DM1 is a rare genetic neuromuscular disease caused by the production of toxic dystrophia myotonica-protein kinase (DMPK) RNA in cells. ISIS-DMPKRx is specifically designed to reduce toxic DMPK RNA.

16 Dec 2014