Ursodiol in Huntington's Disease (UDCA-HD)

February 4, 2009 updated by: Oregon Health and Science University
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety of the drug ursodiol (ursodeoxycholic acid, UDCA) in people with Huntington's disease (HD) and to explore how the compound is processed by the body.

Study Overview

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Huntington's disease is an inherited neurodegenerative disease that causes a movement disorder, dementia, and psychiatric and behavioral disturbance in affected individuals.

Tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) is a bile acid synthesized in the liver by the conjugation of taurine to ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA). It is thought to function as an anti-apoptotic agent in HD, evidenced by studies in toxic cell models and both toxic and transgenic rodent models of the disease.

Ursodiol is a commercially-available exogenous form of UDCA, the precursor of TUDCA. Although the compound has an established dosing, safety, tolerability and efficacy profile in patients with hepatobiliary disorders, gaps exist in the understanding of the pharmacokinetics / pharmacodynamics of the compound, particularly in patients with normal gastrointestinal function, and no human data exist for its therapeutic use in neurodegenerative disorders. The specific aims of this study are:

  1. To establish whether treatment with the drug ursodiol will result in measurable levels of its bile acid metabolites in serum and CSF at standard oral doses; and whether a dose-response can be detected using these measures.
  2. To establish a preliminary safety and tolerability profile of the drug in subjects with HD.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

21

Phase

  • Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Oregon
      • Portland, Oregon, United States, 97239
        • Oregon Health & Science University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • All subjects will be age 18 or older
  • All subjects will have manifest Huntington disease determined by clinical exam plus either documented prior DNA testing for the HD gene or a documented family history of the disease

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Subjects taking oral contraceptives, cholestyramine, colestipol, or aluminum-based antacids will be excluded
  • Subjects with known allergy or other contraindication to the study drug will be excluded
  • Subjects with bleeding diathesis, or on coumadin or mandatory aspirin will be excluded
  • Subjects with unstable medical or psychiatric illness will be excluded
  • Subjects with clinically significant lab / EKG abnormalities at screening will be excluded
  • Subjects who are currently pregnant or breastfeeding will be excluded

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Placebo Comparator: C
Drug: placebo
placebo 600mg twice daily for study days 0 through 28
Experimental: A
Drug: ursodiol

ursodiol 300 mg twice daily for study days 0 through 28

ursodiol 600mg twice daily on study days 0 through 28

Other Names:
  • UDCA
  • Ursodeoxycholic acid
Experimental: B
Drug: ursodiol

ursodiol 300 mg twice daily for study days 0 through 28

ursodiol 600mg twice daily on study days 0 through 28

Other Names:
  • UDCA
  • Ursodeoxycholic acid

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Safety measures (complete blood count, chemistry profile, electrocardiogram, urinalysis)
Time Frame: 35 days
35 days
Tolerability measures (adverse event severity)
Time Frame: 35 days
35 days
Pharmacokinetic measures (Serum and CSF levels of bile acids)
Time Frame: 28 days
28 days

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Oregon Health and Science University

Collaborators

Huntington Study Group
Huntington Society of Canada

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Penelope Hogarth, M.D., Oregon Health and Science University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

August 1, 2007

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

June 1, 2009

Study Completion (Anticipated)

June 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 8, 2007

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 8, 2007

First Posted (Estimate)

August 10, 2007

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

February 5, 2009

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 4, 2009

Last Verified

February 1, 2009

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 00001927

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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