Safety issues and harmful pharmacological interactions of nutritional supplements in Duchenne muscular dystrophy: considerations for Standard of Care and emerging virus outbreaks.

At the moment, little treatment options are available for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The absence of the dystrophin protein leads to a complex cascade of pathogenic events in myofibres, including chronic inflammation and oxidative stress as well as altered metabolism. The attention towards dietary supplements in DMD is rapidly increasing, with the aim to counteract pathology-related alteration in nutrient intake, the consequences of catabolic distress or to enhance the immunological response of patients as nowadays for the COVID-19 pandemic emergency. By definition, supplements do not exert therapeutic actions, although a great confusion may arise in daily life by the improper distinction between supplements and therapeutic compounds. For most supplements, little research has been done and little evidence is available concerning their effects in DMD as well as their preventing actions against infections. Often these are not prescribed by clinicians and patients/caregivers do not discuss the use with their clinical team. Then, little is known about the real extent of supplement use in DMD patients. It is mistakenly assumed that, since compounds are of natural origin, if a supplement is not effective, it will also do no harm. However, supplements can have serious side effects and also have harmful interactions, in terms of reducing efficacy or leading to toxicity, with other therapies. It is therefore pivotal to shed light on this unclear scenario for the sake of patients. This review discusses the supplements mostly used by DMD patients, focusing on their potential toxicity, due to a variety of mechanisms including pharmacodynamic or pharmacokinetic interactions and contaminations, as well as on reports of adverse events. This overview underlines the need for caution in uncontrolled use of dietary supplements in fragile populations such as DMD patients. A culture of appropriate use has to be implemented between clinicians and patients' groups.

Towards harmonization of clinical tools for assessing Brain Involvement in Dystrophinopathies (BIND); report of four expert workshops: Newcastle, Leiden, Rome, Paris.

As part of an international project aimed at improving the characterization of brain involvement in Duchenne and Becker Muscular Dystrophies, a group of clinicians, researchers and family associations held multiple meetings between March 2021 and March 2024 to identify and reach a consensus on the possible tools that could assess the spectrum of neurocognitive and neurobehavioral brain comorbidities in dystrophinopathies. Consensus was achieved on which of these tools should be used across different settings, ranging from screening to clinical practice and scientific research. Screening questionnaires were found to be valuable not only for providing epidemiological data but also for raising awareness among the Duchenne community and professionals. More standardised and detailed online questionnaires, combined with in-depth clinical assessments can help better identify the profile of brain comorbidities and plan appropriate interventions. Additionally, the information gathered from assessing multiple features of brain involvement can be used to explore correlations with other aspects, such as the regional expression of the different dystrophin isoforms, brain imaging, and the animal models deficient in these isoforms.

Development of the Performance of the Upper Limb module for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

AIM: An international Clinical Outcomes Group consisting of clinicians, scientists, patient advocacy groups, and industries identified a need for a scale to measure motor performance of the upper limb. We report the steps leading to the development of the Performance of the Upper Limb (PUL), a tool specifically designed for assessing upper limb function in ambulant and non-ambulant patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). METHOD: The development of the PUL followed a number of steps, from the systematic review and a preliminary study exploring the suitability of the existing measures, to the application of a pilot version in a multicentric setting, with Rasch analysis of the preliminary results, leading to a revised pro forma. RESULTS: The PUL was specifically designed for DMD, with a conceptual framework reflecting the progression of weakness and natural history of functional decline in DMD. Modern psychometric methods were used to create a scale with robust internal reliability, validity, and hierarchical scalability; males with DMD and their families were involved iteratively throughout the process of the clinician-reported outcome assessment tool development to establish clinical meaningfulness and relevance of individual PUL items to activities of daily living. INTERPRETATION: The module was developed using innovative approaches and will be useful for designing clinical trials.

The Dilemma of Choice for Duchenne Patients Eligible for Exon 51 Skipping The European Experience.

Antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) mediated exon skipping aims to reframe dystrophin transcripts for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Currently 4 ASOs have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration targeting exon 45, 51 and 53 based on low level dystrophin restoration. Additional studies to confirm functional effects are ongoing. Furthermore, efforts are ongoing to increase muscle specific delivery of ASOs. Consequently, there are 5 clinical trials ongoing or planned for exon 51 skipping ASOs in Europe. While exon 51 skipping applies to the largest group of patients, DMD expert centers do not have sufficient numbers of patients or capacity to run all these trials in parallel. Even at a national level numbers may be too scarce. At the same time, some families now face the choice between participation in different clinical trials of exon 51 skipping, sometimes in addition to the choice of participating in a micro-dystrophin gene therapy trial. In this opinion paper, we outline the challenges, compare the different exon 51 skipping trials, and outline how different European centers and countries try to cope with running multiple trials in parallel for a small group of eligible patients.

Patient reported outcome measure for upper limb in Duchenne muscular dystrophy: correlation with PUL2.0.

The increasing pressure to include non ambulant Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) boys in clinical trials has highlighted the need for outcome measures that could address the impact of upper limb function on activities of daily living. The aim of the present study was to establish the correlation between the recently developed Patient Reported Outcome Measure for the upper limb (PROM UL) and the observer rated functional scale Performance of Upper Limb (PUL 2.0) in a large cohort of DMD boys and young adults. As part of a larger natural history study, non ambulant DMD patients were assessed using PUL2.0 and PROM UL. One hundred and twenty-five concurrent PUL 2.0 and PROM UL evaluations from 60 non ambulant DMD boys were taken into consideration. The total PROM UL scores showed a strong correlation with both PUL 2.0 total scores and with PUL 2.0 entry item score. The strong correlation between the two tools confirms the clinical meaningfulness of the PUL2.0 and that the PROM UL can help to detect the gradient of progression of upper limb involvement.

The Role of Patient Involvement When Developing Therapies.

The drug development process is a long and arduous one, especially for rare diseases. Patient and patient representatives can and should be involved in this process from an early stage, since they have the perspective of living with a disease on a daily basis and can best identify which symptoms are the largest burden and which benefits would be more important to them. In this perspective, we outline how patients can be involved optimally in drug development. We outline success factors such as finding the right partners, bilateral education, having realistic expectations, and an open and honest dialog with all stakeholders.

A Comparison of Caregiver and Patient Preferences for Treating Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Caregivers routinely inform medical and regulatory decision making in rare pediatric diseases. While differences in treatment preferences across caregivers and patients have been observed for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, this evidence was limited by small samples of patients and results were confounded by patient age and disease progression. We tested caregiver and patient preference concordance for treating Duchenne. METHODS: Preferences and demographic/clinical information from 115 caregivers and 107 patients were collected in an international study (response = 80%) using a previously developed discrete-choice experiment consisting of 12 experimentally controlled choice tasks. Each task presented two profiles that varied across four attributes: disease progression, drug failure probability, kidney damage risk, and fracture risk. Caregivers and patients were matched 1:1 based on patient age. We tested for concordance across each task and by comparing caregivers' and patients' maximum acceptable risk of drug failure, kidney damage, and fracture for a slowing of disease progression. RESULTS: The final analysis included 77 caregivers and 77 patients. No differences were observed in nationality (p = 0.969), disease stage (p = 0.180), or demographic/clinical factors (p = 0.093-0.857); however, patients were more optimistic (p = 0.030). Caregivers and patients chose similarly across tasks (p = 0.101-0.993). To slow disease progression by 1 year, caregivers and patients would tolerate a 9% and 11% increase in drug failure probability, respectively (p = 0.267). Alternatively, they would accept a 3% and 4% increase in the risk of kidney damage (p = 0.719) or a 15% and 20% increase in the risk of fracture (p = 0.534). CONCLUSIONS: Caregivers and patients had concordant preferences for treating Duchenne. Providers and regulators can trust both caregiver and patient report of preferences to inform medical decision making.

How Patient Organizations Can Drive FAIR Data Efforts to Facilitate Research and Health Care: A Report of the Virtual Second International Meeting on Duchenne Data Sharing, March 3, 2021.

BACKGROUND: For patients with rare diseases such as Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy (DMD/BMD), access to their health data is key to being able to advocate for themselves and be in control of their care. Since 2018, the DMD/BMD patient community has been committed to making DMD/BMD-related data FAIR, i.e., Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. On March 3, 2021, the second international meeting on FAIR data sharing for DMD/BMD was held virtually. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this meeting report is to summarize the presentations and discussions of the meeting. METHODS: During this meeting, the progress of FAIRification efforts since the first international meeting in 2019, new developments, stakeholder perspectives, and experiences from implementing FAIR data principles in practice were presented and discussed. RESULTS: Over 120 attendees representing various stakeholder groups (ie, patient organizations, clinicians, clinical and academic researchers, pharmaceutical companies, regulators, and EU organizations) from 22 countries participated in the meeting. This meeting report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the meeting, provides an overview of the key lessons learned since the first meeting, and outlines the next steps. CONCLUSIONS: Patient organizations are key drivers of the FAIRification process in practice and dialogue with stakeholders is critical to success.

The evolution of patient-focused drug development and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Introduction: There is a groundswell of interest from patient, industry, and regulatory groups to rigorously and transparently integrate patient-voice into regulatory decision-making. Patient-focused drug development (PFDD) is an approach established by the US Food and Drug Administration to systematically incorporate patient experiences into drug development and evaluation. It has created a demand for scientific advancement to measure and integrate patient-voice into decision-making.Areas covered: This narrative review describes the evolving nature of advocacy-regulatory relations preceding PFDD, characterizes current PFDD and other patient-engagement activities, and explores future opportunities for patient participation along the drug development pipeline. We present Duchenne muscular dystrophy as a case study to illustrate how PFDD is being operationalized by patient groups and regulators using both verbal and written data sources.Expert opinion: PFDD represents the most widespread approach yet to integrate the patient voice as a source of evidence to inform regulatory decision-making. Regulatory approvals are just one frontier in drug development. On the horizon remain uncertainties in how patient experience can inform post-marketing surveillance, pricing, reimbursement, and health technology assessment. Patient-input may be particularly crucial to demonstrate the value of expensive first-generation rare disease treatments that confer meaningful benefits but do not meet traditional thresholds for cost-effectiveness.

Muscle biopsies in clinical trials for Duchenne muscular dystrophy - Patients' and caregivers' perspective.

The number of clinical trials for Duchenne muscular dystrophy is increasing. Many trials require muscle biopsies, which involve an invasive surgical procedure. Little is known about short- and long-term impacts of muscle biopsies as perceived by patients and caregivers. Therefore a survey was held among patients and their caregivers who participated in trials involving muscle biopsies, in seven countries. Seventy-eight responses were received. Analysis revealed that many patients and parents had significant anxiety before the biopsy. The main concern of caregivers was the required general anaesthesia. In most cases biopsies caused pain and temporarily hampered daily activities. The main long-term impact was scarring, although large variation in size was reported. Seventy-nine percent of caregivers were little bothered and 21% were moderately or severely bothered by the scar. Willingness to consider another biopsy in future protocols was higher for open-label studies than for placebo-controlled trials. Caregivers stressed the importance of knowing the results of biopsy analyses; only a minority actually received this information. Recommendations are made on the informed consent procedure regarding risks and consequences of muscle biopsies, and communication of results. Furthermore, efforts should be made to minimise the impact of biopsies through pain management and by considering plastic surgery.

Primary Care and Emergency Department Management of the Patient With Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Primary care providers (PCPs) are usually the first point of contact with the health care system for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), and patients often present to emergency departments in which providers have little experience in dealing with this condition. With this article, we give primary care and emergency medicine providers a background in the common issues that affect people with DMD. By acquiring some specialized knowledge about the multisystem medical complications of DMD and by applying general principles of primary care, such as timely immunization, anticipatory safety counseling, behavioral screening, and routine nutritional and developmental assessments, the PCP can be a valued and effective medical provider to patients with DMD. The PCP can provide access to and effective coordination among the patient's specialty caregivers. Moreover, the PCP can become a trusted advisor to the patient and his family about important medical decisions, as well as issues in the psychosocial, behavioral, and educational domains. This article also contains a "pocket guide" used to assess and manage common urgent medical problems that cause patients with DMD to seek care in the emergency department. With the background information discussed in this article, both PCPs and emergency medicine physicians can skillfully care for patients with DMD in their respective settings, optimizing patient outcomes.

A Transition Toolkit for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

The care of individuals with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) now extends into adulthood. Childhood to adulthood transition planning is an important aspect of care, affecting health outcomes as well as other important aspects of adult life. In this article, we address transition planning as it relates to DMD health care, education, steps toward vocations, personal care, accessing the home and community, and the importance of relationships with others. Because of the complex, disabling, and progressive nature of DMD, coordinated, well-timed planning is critical to ensure that all components of transition are accomplished. In this article, we introduce the DMD Transition Toolkit. The toolkit is designed to help assess readiness for transition, track progress toward transition goals, and provide a template for documenting key elements of medical care, medical equipment, and services. The transition readiness assessment for young adults with DMD is used to gauge readiness for adult health care and living practices. Consistent with the 2018 DMD Care Considerations, the transition checklist for young adults with DMD is a comprehensive list to be considered, discussed, and planned for during transition. The medical summary for young adults with DMD can be used by a provider or individuals with DMD to communicate details of their health plan, provider contacts, and medical equipment needs. It can be used in transition handoffs, when adding new providers, or when informing new nursing agencies or personal care attendants. It could also be useful in urgent care settings by providing baseline information about the individual with DMD.

Development of Exon Skipping Therapies for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: A Critical Review and a Perspective on the Outstanding Issues.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a rare, severe, progressive muscle-wasting disease leading to disability and premature death. Patients lack the muscle membrane-stabilizing protein dystrophin. Antisense oligonucleotide (AON)-mediated exon skipping is a therapeutic approach that aims to induce production of partially functional dystrophins. Recently, an AON targeting exon 51 became the first of its class to be approved by the United States regulators [Food and Drug Administration (FDA)] for the treatment of DMD. A unique aspect of the exon-skipping approach for DMD is that, depending on the size and location of the mutation, different exons need to be skipped. This challenge raises a number of questions regarding the development and regulatory approval of those individual compounds. In this study, we present a perspective on those questions, following a European stakeholder meeting involving academics, regulators, and representatives from industry and patient organizations, and in the light of the most recent scientific and regulatory experience.

Stakeholder cooperation to overcome challenges in orphan medicine development: the example of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a rare, progressive, muscle-wasting disease leading to severe disability and premature death. Treatment is currently symptomatic, but several experimental therapies are in development. Implemented care standards, validated outcome measures correlating with clinical benefit, and comprehensive information about the natural history of the disease are essential for regulatory approval of any treatment. However, for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and other rare diseases, these requirements are not always in place when potential therapies enter the clinical trial phase. A cooperative effort of stakeholders in Duchenne muscular dystrophy-including representatives from patients' groups, academia, industry, and regulatory agencies-is aimed at addressing this shortfall by identifying strategies to overcome challenges, developing the tools needed, and collecting relevant data. An open and constructive dialogue among European stakeholders has positively affected development of treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy; this approach could serve as a paradigm for development of treatments for rare diseases in general.

Imperatives for DUCHENNE MD: a Simplified Guide to Comprehensive Care for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a progressive, life-limiting muscle-wasting disease. Although no curative treatment is yet available, comprehensive multidisciplinary care has increased life expectancy significantly in recent decades. An international consensus care publication in 2010 outlined best-practice care, which includes corticosteroid treatment, respiratory, cardiac, orthopedic and rehabilitative interventions to address disease manifestations. While disease specialists are largely aware of these care standards, local physicians responsible for the day-to-day care of patients and families may be less familiar. To facilitate optimal care, a one-page document has been generated from published care recommendations, summarizing the key elements of comprehensive care for people living with DMD ("Imperatives for Duchenne muscular dystrophy). This document was developed through an international collaboration between Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD), United Parent Projects Muscular Dystrophy (UPPMD) and TREAT-NMD.

[Re-use of medical data for research. What do the Dutch think of the requirement for explicit consent?]. / Hergebruik van medische gegevens voor onderzoek. Wat vindt de Nederlander van het toestemmingsvereiste?

OBJECTIVE: How do healthcare consumers perceive the use of medical data for scientific research, within the framework of protection of their personal data? DESIGN: Survey among 731 members of the Healthcare Consumer Panel of the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL). METHOD: A written and online questionnaire was used, consisting of general questions and 4 cases per respondent. The questions concerned the degree of trust respondents have in the use of previously registered data for different kinds of healthcare research, and their willingness to make data available under various conditions without being asked for explicit consent. RESULTS: Respondents showed a high degree of trust in scientific researchers and physicians concerning the re-use of medical data for research. A majority agreed that it is not necessary to be explicitly asked for consent for this kind of research, providing they are informed: one-third found their autonomy in being able to decide to be more important than scientific progress; three-quarters found explicit permission unnecessary as long as the data is well-protected and only used for scientific research. CONCLUSION: Data protection in research should be proportional to the risks of misuse and the benefits of the use of the data for research. A large majority of healthcare users trust the researchers, and the existing codes of conduct protect data sufficiently. Therefore, we see no need for stricter requirements for the use of health data, which would unnecessarily limit healthcare research. We do consider greater transparency about the research process to be necessary, in order to maintain a proper balance between personal-data protection and the need to emphasise the necessity for learning in the healthcare system.

Looking under every rock: Duchenne muscular dystrophy and traditional Chinese medicine.

Traditional Chinese medicine has been advocated to alleviate symptoms in Duchenne muscular dystrophy. To investigate this hypothesis, a pilot study was carried out in Beijing on 10 DMD boys treated with various regimens, including pills, decoctions, massages and acupuncture at various stages of their disease course. Despite the limited scientific impact of such a study, it seems as if the benefit, if any, is minimal. Moreover, some indirect clinical clues such as the cushingoid appearance found in a few patients suggest these drugs may also contain corticosteroids to some extent.