Maureen Newman,  —

Vitamin B3, a water soluble vitamin essential to processing fat and proteins in the human body, may also prove important to treating Friedreich’s Ataxia. A currently recruiting clinical trial from Imperial College London is studying the “Effect of Nicotinamide [Vitamin B3] in Friedreich’s Ataxia”…

Not all clinical trials vital to understanding Friedreich’s ataxia involve new therapies under evaluation before being marketed as treatment. Ronald Crystal, MD, of Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York is sponsoring an observational case control study for “Characterization of the Cardiac…

Patients with Friedreich’s ataxia commonly have difficulty walking due to imbalance issues or trouble conducting daily activities due to reduced upper arm function. Theresa Zesiewicz, MD, FAAN, from the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, is seeking to the study the course of these pains and is sponsoring a…

A large, international clinical trial sponsored by European Friedreich’s Ataxia Consortium for Translational Studies (EFACTS) is currently recruiting 650 patients with genetically confirmed Friedreich’s Ataxia to benefit future research efforts through data acquisition and validation. “Patient Registry of the European Friedreich’s Ataxia Consortium for…

Friedreich’s ataxia patients are at a risk of developing foot drop deformity, or the loss of dorsiflexion and eversion (up-and-down movement), in the ankle joint. A clinical trial sponsored by Royal National Orthopedic Hospital NHS Trust in London is seeking to test head-to-head two methods of treating foot drop…

When testing new compounds to treat Friedreich’s ataxia (FA), it is vital to have a metric for determining the efficacy of these compounds. Some studies have suggested using the iron content of dentate nuclei in the cerebellum as a biomarker for determining the efficacy of siderophores and antioxidants in…

Biopharmaceutical company Shire, is sponsoring a clinical trial for adults with Friedreich’s ataxia (FA) and is currently enrolling participants. The phase 1 clinical trial is evaluating VP 20629 (indole-3-propionic acid) against a placebo to investigate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of treatment in FA patients 18 to 45…

Although Friedreich’s ataxia is a condition with a known cause (a genetic abnormality on chromosome 9 that depletes cells of frataxin protein), some cases of the disease throw clinicians a curve ball. Such was the case for one 48-year-old man with a known diagnosis of Friedreich’s ataxia. He was…

Results are in for an open-label phase 2 clinical trial of interferon gamma (IFN-γ) treatment for Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA) sponsored by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia along with collaborators at the Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance and Vidara Therapeutics Research Ltd. David Lynch, MD, PhD, served as the principal investigator. The…