Acetyl-Amantadine as a Biomarker in Patients With Glioblastoma

February 22, 2024 updated by: CancerCare Manitoba
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common brain tumor in adults. The strikingly poor survival for patients with GBM (average survival 14-16 months following diagnosis) is due in part to limited early detection methods and an absence of effective therapeutic options. The study proposed would establish important evidence for the use of Health Canada approved drugs such as amantadine as a safe, effective and affordable way to monitor GBM. The method is based on the overproduction of a key enzyme in GBM cells called spermine/ spermidine n-acetyl transferase (SSAT1). The increased SSAT1 expression in GBM results in increased metabolism of the drug which is detected in the blood or urine of patients with GBM. The levels of acetyl-amantadine captured will be correlated with the tumor burden as seen on the MRIs of these patients. Thus, the study aims to determine the usefulness of amantadine as a diagnostic biomarker for GBM.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Detailed Description

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common malignant primary brain tumor in adults, with a median age of onset of 55 to 60 years. Most patients are treated with postoperative radiation and chemotherapy following their initial surgery. For newly diagnosed, high grade gliomas, the first post-radiation cycle of temozolomide (an oral chemotherapy drug) typically begins four weeks after completion of radiation therapy1. During radiation, temozolomide or lomustine is given daily (seven days per week). Assessment of response and progression is made through brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with contrast, which is typically obtained within one month after completion of radiation therapy and then every two months during adjuvant temozolomide to assess disease status1. With the available standard of care, the median overall survival of patients with glioblastoma remains very low - approximately 10 to 12 months2.

The poor prognosis with GBM is a result of an absence of early detection and ineffective treatment options. The proposed exploratory pilot project attempts to addresses the problem of accurate tumor progression monitoring in GBM through the development of a drug biomarker that monitors spermidine/spermine N1-acetyltransferase (SSAT1) activity. SSAT1 is an important enzyme involved in polyamine regulation in the cell. As polyamines are essential for tumor proliferation, SSAT1 is over-expressed in many different cancers, as shown in a number of non-clinical trials3,4,5. These trials provide a rationale for our project: if SSAT1 is overexpressed in cancers including glioblastoma, then a substrate of SSAT1 could serve as a biomarker for determining the cellular activity of SSAT1. An effective substrate is amantadine, and following its acetylation by SSAT1, N-acetyl-amantadine levels excreted in the blood and urine samples of patients with glioblastoma could be used to indicate the presence of upregulation of SSAT1, and therefore, indicative of cancer. Recently published clinical trials involving investigators here at University of Manitoba and CancerCare Manitoba have reported a method for assessing tumor progression in lung and breast cancer patients based on acetyl- amantadine levels in blood and urine6,7,8. The assay is predicated on the selective acetylation of the drug amantadine by SSAT1. Published studies indicate increases in acetyl-amantadine in blood and urine from patients receiving a single oral dose of amantadine was predictive of tumor burden. Tappia et.al.7 reported that human cancer is associated with high urinary concentration of acetyl-amantadine with receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) for acetyl-amantadine demonstrated to be 0.689 (CI: 0.591-0.786, 95%) in lung cancer and 0.717 (CI: 0.577-0.858, 95%) for breast cancer.

Given the use of acetyl-amantadine as an early biomarker for lung and breast cancer, the present study protocol examines the extent to which acetyl-amantadine levels in blood and urine can be used to detect glioblastoma progression, particularly tumor recurrence which happens in the majority of patients and is considered inevitable after a median survival time of 32 - 36 weeks1. There are currently no studies that have attempted to determine the diagnostic value of acetyl-amantadine in glioblastoma patients, and therefore, this would be a pilot project. Under this protocol, patients diagnosed with glioblastoma (newly or recurrent) who are following the standard of care (surgical resection and radiation/chemotherapy) will be enrolled in the study. An initial assessment of the participant's baseline acetyl-amantadine levels in blood will be determined at the first visit. Thereafter, participants will be administered a standard 200 mg dose of the Health Canada approved drug amantadine at every visit in which MRI based imaging assessments are being performed (typically, every 8 - 12 weeks). Blood and urine samples will be taken at each visit to assay for acetyl-amantadine levels. These resulting acetyl-amantadine levels will be correlated with MRI based image findings to determine the extent to which this biomarker can be used for treatment monitoring in glioblastoma patients.

While the hypothesis is that acetyl-amantadine levels in blood or urine can be used to track tumor progression, an increase in acetyl-amantadine level would not indicate per se what type of tumor was present. For this reason, a metabolic profile on blood and urine samples collected from glioblastoma patients will be performed, to determine if there is a metabolic signature that can be established for glioblastoma.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

20

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

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

Study Contact

Study Locations

    • Manitoba
      • Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, R3E 0V9
        • Recruiting
        • CancerCare Manitoba
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Marshall Pitz, MD, FRCPC

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

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Adult (18 years+)
  • Pathologically confirmed Glioblastoma
  • ECOG performance status 0-2
  • Planned treatment with radiation and/or chemotherapy with temozolomide or lomustine
  • Able to return to the study centre for study visits
  • Able to swallow oral pills
  • Serum creatinine and creatinine clearance (>60mL/min)
  • Liver enzymes for liver function (Liver function tests <2.5 times the upper limit of normal)
  • Participants of childbearing potential must agree to use an effective contraceptive method.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Known hypersensitivity or allergy to amantadine
  • Concurrent infection requiring antiviral medication
  • Concurrent medication with known interaction with amantadine (see below)
  • Previous diagnosis of Parkinson's disease or parkinsonism
  • Previous diagnosis of schizophrenia
  • Current use of methamphetamine or cocaine
  • Inability to swallow oral pills
  • Significant impairment in renal function (Creatinine clearance < 60 mL/min)
  • Women who are pregnant or are breastfeeding

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: Diagnostic
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: GBM Patients

This cohort of patients will be asked to orally ingest 200mg dose of FDA approved drug amantadine hydrochloride. This will be done at the following timepoints:

  1. Within 4 weeks of the start of treatment; but as close to commencement of treatment (Day 1 of radiotherapy) as possible for newly diagnosed patients.
  2. Cycle 1, Day 1 of chemotherapy (temozolomide or lomustine) +/- 7 days
  3. Day 1 +/- 7 days for each visit where MRI is obtained (typically every 8-12 weeks - pre-cycles 4, 7, 10, for temozolomide or pre-cycles 3, 5, and 7 for lomustine)

Patients who are eligible for the study will be administered a regular 200 mg dose of FDA approved drug amantadine. This will be done at the following timepoints:

  1. Within 4 weeks of the start of treatment; but as close to commencement of treatment (Day 1 of radiotherapy) as possible for newly diagnosed patients.
  2. Cycle 1, Day 1 of chemotherapy (temozolomide or lomustine) +/- 7 days
  3. Day 1 +/- 7 days for each visit where MRI is obtained (typically every 8-12 weeks - pre-cycles 4, 7, 10, for temozolomide or pre-cycles 3, 5, and 7 for lomustine)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Blood and Urine Acetyl-Amantadine levels in patients with GBM
Time Frame: This outcome will be assessed every 8 to 12 weeks. This will continue through study completion, an average of two years.
Samples of plasma and urine will be analyzed by established analytical methods (as developed by Biopharmaceutical Research Inc., Vancouver, B.C.; Health Canada and FDA approved). Quantitative analysis of amantadine and acetyl-amantadine in plasma and urine samples will be performed using liquid chromatography triple quadrupole tandem mass spectroscopy (LC-MS/MS). Samples (50 µl) will be spiked with 50 µl of internal standard, deuterated acetyl-amantadine (d3-Ac-amantidine), and proteins precipitated with 0.5 ml of ice-cold methanol. The lyophilized deproteinated samples are reconstituted in 0.1 ml of 0.1% formic acid. Samples are injected onto a C-18 stationary column and eluted using a gradient mobile phase consisting of 0.1% aqueous formic acid (A) and 0.1% formic acid in methanol (B). The run time for each sample is 9 minutes with the mobile phase starting at 5% B and increasing to 95% B during sample elution.
This outcome will be assessed every 8 to 12 weeks. This will continue through study completion, an average of two years.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
GBM tumor volume in correlation with serum and urine acetyl-amantadine levels in patients with GBM
Time Frame: This outcome will be assessed every 8 to 12 weeks. This will continue through study completion, an average of two years.

Standard of care MRI will be used. Definitions of response to standard therapy (progression, stable disease, response) will follow the established Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology (RANO) guidelines9.

Post-hoc volumetric analysis will be done using quantitative semi-automated Olea Sphere software (Olea Medical, France).

The study does not require additional MRI scans to be performed; Routine MRI images, as per glioblastoma standard of treatment, are posted to Radiology Information System/Picture Archiving and Communication System (RISPACS) and will be accessed for analysis.

This outcome will be assessed every 8 to 12 weeks. This will continue through study completion, an average of two years.

Collaborators and Investigators

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

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

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 (Actual)

December 2, 2020

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 1, 2024

Study Completion (Estimated)

August 1, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 21, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 26, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

August 28, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

February 23, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 22, 2024

Last Verified

February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

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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