New Imaging Biomarkers for Muscular Diseases - Multispectral Optoacoustic Imaging in Spinal Muscular Atrophy (MSOT_SMA)

University of Erlangen-Nürnberg Medical School

Status: Completed

Conditions: Muscular Diseases; Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Treatments: Device: Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography (MSOT)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04115475

168_19B

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study aims to refine the capability of MSOT to characterise muscle tissue and to determine non-invasive, quantitative biomarkers for the disease assessment in patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) using Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography (MSOT).

Full description

SMA is an autosomal-recessive disorder, characterized by progressive muscle weakness and atrophy with an incidence of 1/10,000. The condition is caused by a homozygous deletion or mutation in the survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1), resulting in reduced expression of the survival motor neuron (SMN) protein. This leads to the degeneration of motor neurons in the spinal cord and brain stem. A nearby related gene, survival motor neuron 2 (SMN2), could partially compensate the loss of SMN1. Individuals with a higher copy number of SMN2 do in general have a milder phenotype. New therapeutic approaches, e.g. nusinersen (spinraza©), an antisense oligonucleotide medication that modulates pre-messenger RNA splicing of the survival motor neuron 2 (SMN2) gene, are promising to help the formerly incurable children. However, most clinical trials lack primary outcomes other than clinical testing. At the moment there are no prospective, quantitative biomarkers available to detect muscle atrophy at an early age, and to follow up disease progression. As a new imaging modality, optoacoustic imaging (OAI) combines benefits of optical (high contrast) and acoustic (high resolution) imaging. Multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) is therefore capable of visualizing the distribution of endogenous absorbers by initiating laser-induced thermoelastic expansion and detection of resulting pressure waves. This imaging technique enables the label-free detection and quantification of different endogenous chromophores, such as melanin, hemoglobin, deoxyhemoglobin and lipids. Previously, it was demonstrated that MSOT is capable to monitor disease severity in Crohn's disease by detecting different signal levels of hemoglobin as markers of intestinal inflammatory activity. In this study we want to refine the capability of MSOT to characterize muscle tissue and to determine a non-invasive, quantitative biomarker for the disease assessment in SMA patients from birth using MSOT.

Enrollment: 20 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• genetically proven SMA

Exclusion criteria

• Pregnancy
• Tattoo on skin to be examined
• For healthy volunteers only: suspected muscular disease/myopathia

Trial design

Primary purpose: Diagnostic

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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20 participants in 2 patient groups

Healthy Volunteers (HV)

Active Comparator group

Description:

* Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography (MSOT) and B-Mode Ultrasound of muscles (left and right, total 8 sites) leg proximal: Musculus quadriceps, distal: Musculus triceps surae arm proximal: Musculus biceps, distal: forearm flexors; * physical assessment/milestones: Hammersmith Infant Neurological Examination (HINE)/ expanded Hammersmith functional motor scale (HFMSE)/ The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Infant Test of Neuromuscular Disorders (CHOP Intend)/ Upper Limb Module (ULM)

Treatment:

Device: Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography (MSOT)

Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) patients

Experimental group

Description:

* Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography (MSOT) and B-Mode Ultrasound of muscles (left and right, total 8 sites) leg proximal: Musculus quadriceps, distal: Musculus triceps surae arm proximal: Musculus biceps, distal: forearm flexors; * physical assessment/milestones: Hammersmith Infant Neurological Examination (HINE)/ expanded Hammersmith functional motor scale (HFMSE)/ The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Infant Test of Neuromuscular Disorders (CHOP Intend)/ Upper Limb Module (ULM)

Treatment:

Device: Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography (MSOT)