Rare Diseases Symptoms Automatic Extraction

A safety trial of high dose glyceryl triacetate for Canavan disease.

[canavan disease]

Canavan disease (CD MIM#271900) is a rare autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disorder presenting in early infancy. The course of the disease is variable, but it is always fatal. CD is caused by mutations in the ASPA gene, which codes for the enzyme aspartoacylase (ASPA), which breaks down N-acetylaspartate (NAA) to acetate and aspartic acid. The lack of NAA-degrading enzyme activity leads to excess accumulation of NAA in the brain and deficiency of acetate, which is necessary for myelin lipid synthesis. Glyceryltriacetate (GTA) is a short-chain triglyceride with three acetate moieties on a glycerol backbone and has proven an effective acetate precursor. Intragastric administration of GTA to tremor mice results in greatly increased brain acetate levels, and improved motor functions. GTA given to infants with CD at a low dose (up to 0.25 g/kg/d) resulted in no improvement in their clinical status, but also no detectable toxicity. We present for the first time the safety profile of high dose GTA (4.5 g/kg/d) in 2 patients with CD. We treated 2 infants with CD at ages 8 months and 1 year with high dose GTA, for 4.5 and 6 months respectively. No significant side effects and no toxicity were observed. Although the treatment resulted in no motor improvement, it was well tolerated. The lack of clinical improvement might be explained mainly by the late onset of treatment, when significant brain damage was already present. Further larger studies of CD patients below age 3 months are required in order to test the long-term efficacy of this drug.

Diseases presenting "first time" symptom

  • achondroplasia
  • acute rheumatic fever
  • adrenal incidentaloma
  • adrenomyeloneuropathy
  • alpha-thalassemia
  • aniridia
  • aromatase deficiency
  • canavan disease
  • carcinoma of the gallbladder
  • cholangiocarcinoma
  • classical phenylketonuria
  • congenital adrenal hyperplasia
  • congenital toxoplasmosis
  • cowden syndrome
  • cushing syndrome
  • cutaneous mastocytosis
  • dedifferentiated liposarcoma
  • dentin dysplasia
  • dentinogenesis imperfecta
  • dracunculiasis
  • dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa
  • epidermolysis bullosa simplex
  • erdheim-chester disease
  • erythropoietic protoporphyria
  • esophageal adenocarcinoma
  • esophageal carcinoma
  • esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
  • fabry disease
  • familial mediterranean fever
  • gm1 gangliosidosis
  • harlequin ichthyosis
  • heparin-induced thrombocytopenia
  • hirschsprung disease
  • hodgkin lymphoma, classical
  • holt-oram syndrome
  • hydrocephalus with stenosis of the aqueduct of sylvius
  • junctional epidermolysis bullosa
  • kabuki syndrome
  • kallmann syndrome
  • liposarcoma
  • locked-in syndrome
  • lymphangioleiomyomatosis
  • malignant atrophic papulosis
  • megacystis-microcolon-intestinal hypoperistalsis syndrome
  • monosomy 21
  • neuralgic amyotrophy
  • oculocutaneous albinism
  • oligodontia
  • omenn syndrome
  • oral submucous fibrosis
  • papillon-lefèvre syndrome
  • pendred syndrome
  • phenylketonuria
  • primary effusion lymphoma
  • primary hyperoxaluria type 1
  • severe combined immunodeficiency
  • sneddon syndrome
  • triple a syndrome
  • trochlear dysplasia
  • von hippel-lindau disease
  • waldenström macroglobulinemia
  • well-differentiated liposarcoma
  • werner syndrome
  • wiskott-aldrich syndrome
  • wolf-hirschhorn syndrome
  • x-linked adrenoleukodystrophy
  • zellweger syndrome

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