Osilodrostat maintained cortisol control in Cushing’s syndrome

Posted on April 5, 2017 by MaryO

Osilodrostat, a drug that normalized cortisol in 89% of patients with Cushing’s syndrome who took it during a phase II study, continued to exert a sustained benefit during a 31-month extension phase.

In an intent-to-treat analysis, all of the 16 patients who entered the LINC-2 extension study responded well to the medication, with no lapse in cortisol control, Rosario Pivonello, MD, said at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society.

“We also saw significant improvements in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and decreases in fasting plasma glucose,” said Dr. Pivonello of the University of Naples Federico II, Italy. “Surprisingly, after 31 months, we also observed declines in body mass index and weight.”

Osilodrostat, made by Novartis, is an oral inhibitor of 11 beta–hydroxylase. The enzyme catalyzes the last step of cortisol synthesis in the adrenal cortex. The drug was granted orphan status in 2014 by the European Medicines Agency.

In the LINC-2 study, 19 patients took osilodrostat at an initial dose of either 4 mg/day or 10 mg/day, if baseline urinary-free cortisol exceeded three times the upper normal limit. The dose was escalated every 2 weeks to up to 60 mg/day, until cortisol levels were at or below the upper limit of normal. In this study, the main efficacy endpoint was normalization of cortisol, or at least a 50% decrease from baseline at weeks 10 and 22.

Overall response was 89%. Osilodrostat treatment reduced urinary-free cortisol in all patients, and 79% had normal cortisol levels at week 22. The most common adverse events were asthenia, adrenal insufficiency, diarrhea, fatigue, headache, nausea, and acne. New or worsening hirsutism and/or acne were reported among four female patients, all of whom had increased testosterone levels.

The LINC-2 extension study enrolled 16 patients from the phase II cohort, all of whom had responded to the medication. They were allowed to continue on their existing effective dose through the 31-month period.

Dr. Pivonello presented response curves that tracked cortisol levels from treatment initiation in the LINC-2 study. The median baseline cortisol level was about 1,500 nmol per 24 hours. By the fourth week of treatment, this had normalized in all of the patients who entered the extension phase. The response curve showed continued, stable cortisol suppression throughout the entire 31-month period.

Four patients dropped out during the course of the study. Dr. Pivonello didn’t discuss the reasons for these dropouts. He did break down the results by response, imputing the missing data from these four patients. In this analysis, the majority (87.5%) were fully controlled, with urinary-free cortisol in the normal range. The remainder were partially controlled, experiencing at least a 50% decrease in cortisol from their baseline levels. These responses were stable, with no patient experiencing loss of control over the follow-up period.

The 12 remaining patients are still taking the medication, and they experienced other clinical improvements as well. Systolic blood pressure decreased by a mean of 2.2% (from 130 mm Hg to 127 mm Hg). Diastolic blood pressure also improved, by 6% (from 85 mm Hg to 80 mm Hg).

Fasting plasma glucose dropped from a mean of 89 mg/dL to 82 mg/dL. Weight decreased from a mean of 84 kg to 74 kg, with a corresponding decrease in body mass index, from 29.6 kg/m2 to 26.2 kg/m2.

Serum aldosterone decreased along with cortisol, dropping from a mean of 168 pmol/L to just 19 pmol/L. Adrenocorticotropic hormone increased, as did 11-deoxycortisol, 11-deoxycorticosterone, and testosterone.

Pituitary tumor size was measured in six patients. It increased in three and decreased in three. Dr. Pivonello didn’t discuss why this might have occurred.

The most common adverse events were asthenia, adrenal insufficiency, diarrhea, fatigue, headache, nausea, and acne. These moderated over time in both number and severity.

However, there were eight serious adverse events among three patients, including prolonged Q-T interval on electrocardiogram, food poisoning, gastroenteritis, headache, noncardiac chest pain, symptoms related to pituitary tumor (two patients), and uncontrolled Cushing’s syndrome.

Two patients experienced hypokalemia. Six experienced mild events related to hypocortisolism.

Novartis is pursuing the drug with two placebo-controlled phase III studies (LINC-3 and LINC-4), Dr. Pivonello said. An additional phase II study is being conducted in Japan.

Dr. Pivonello has received consulting fees and honoraria from Novartis, which sponsored the study.

Filed under: Cushing's, Endo2017 | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

History of Cortisone’s Discovery

Posted on April 4, 2017 by MaryO

It was Christmas Day in 1914 when the Mayo Clinic chemist Edward C. Kendall, PhD, first succeeded in isolating pure crystalline thyroxin using 6,500 pounds of hog thyroid glands, a success that would set him on the course for making one of the greatest discoveries in medicine in the last century.

His pivotal discovery, according to William F. Young, Jr., MD, MSc, chair of the division of endocrinology, diabetes, metabolism and nutrition at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, would lead Kendall, a self-described “hormone hunter,” to conduct adrenal experiments that would eventually change the course of medicine in ways he couldn’t have imagined. Kendall and his team’s discovery of cortisone would lead not only to a breakthrough treatment, Young said, but a Nobel Prize and international acclaim.

In an interview prior to presenting the Clark T. Swain Memorial History of Endocrinology Lecture at ENDO 2017, Young said that understanding the history behind such a monumental discovery can help endocrinologists see how hormone research has evolved, and provides insight into how to make advances in basic science and improve patient care. In preparing to tell Kendall’s story, Young completed archival research at Mayo and uncovered information that has not previously been published, he said.

“The cortisone story originated at Mayo Clinic, where I have been on staff for 33 years,” Young told Endocrine Today. “Although much of this story is not new information, it is not familiar to the current generations of endocrine scientists and clinical endocrinologists. It is a story of discovery science, clinical intuition, persistence, team science, patient volunteerism and sacrifice, hopes, and dreams.”

‘A big oak tree’

When Kendall first took on the project of preparing better adrenal extracts to potentially treat Addison’s disease in 1930, he was already thinking bigger, Young said.

“He once said, ‘I want to grow a great big oak tree … I am not interested in a bunch of blackberry bushes,’” Young said.

During his experiments at Mayo Clinic, the cost of bovine adrenals rose from 0.20 cents a pound to $3 per pound, equivalent to $42 per pound today. In 1934, Kendall struck a deal with Parke Davis Co., were he would extract “adrenalin” at no cost for the company if it would, in turn, deliver to him 600 pounds of bovine adrenals each week, Young said. He would then use the adrenal cortex for his studies.

In addition, Kendall struck a side deal with Wilson Labs, Young said, for an additional 300 pounds of bovine adrenals per week, to produce a cortical extract for them. He would in turn use the adrenal medullas to boost his production of adrenalin for the Park Davis deal.

“From 1934 to 1949, virtually all of the adrenaline used in North America was manufactured at Mayo Clinic in the small town of in Rochester, Minnesota,” Young said. “This lab ran 24 hours a day, in three shifts. By 1949, over 150 tons of adrenal glands had been processed at Mayo Clinic … $12.4 million in research supply dollars.”

A new discovery

In 1934, Kendall recognized through his work that the adrenal cortex produced more than one hormone, Young said. Over the next year, Kendall’s group isolated five crystalline compounds, naming them compounds “A” through “E” based on their order of identification. Compound “E” — what would later be named cortisone — was found to be biologically active, Young said.

Interest in synthesizing the active hormone from the adrenal cortex grew as part of the American war effort in the 1940s, Young said, and the U.S. National Research Council made it a priority. By 1948, 9,000 mg of “compound E” had been synthesized for clinical study; 2,000 mg were given to each of three investigators at Mayo Clinic for studies in patients with Addison’s disease and the remaining 3,000 mg were saved for future study.

In 1948, a patient known as H.G., a 28-year-old women with progressive inflammatory arthritis, presented to the clinic, Young said. After an unsuccessful treatment with the Swedish hepatoxin lactophenin — a therapy used at the time that induced jaundice in some patients, leading to remission — her physician, Philip Hench, went to Kendall for help. Kendall agreed to give Hench some of the remaining 3,000 mg of “compound E,” if Hench could convince Merck to grant permission.

The clinicians did get permission, and H.G. began treatment. Within days, Young said, the improvement was remarkable. Reading from the original, handwritten notes of Hench and his colleagues in rheumatology, , Young detailed the patient’s progress:

“Rolled over and turned off the radio with ease for the first time in weeks,” the notes said from “day 3.” “No more trembling of knees when moving.”

The clinicians were so amazed, Young said, that they filmed H.G’s progress. Young, who obtained the original films from the Mayo Clinic archives, showed footage of a crippled H.G. struggling to stand, only to be walking normally.

“They started taking videos because they realized no one would believe them,” Young said as the video played. “That they actually had something that could affect, up until this point, a crippling disorder.”

Hench came up with the acronym “cortisone,” adapted from corticosterone.

The discovery became international news. In December 1950, Kendall, Hench along with Tadeus Reichstein, received the 1950 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine — just 27 months after H.G. received her first dose of “compound E.”

The future of corticosteroids

Today, Young said, corticosteroids are used for their anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive properties across the field of medicine. Natural and synthetic glucocorticoids are used to treat a wide variety of non-adrenal diseases, from allergies, to gastrointestinal disorders and infectious diseases.

The important story of patient H.G. — and the scientific journey of Kendall and his colleagues — still resonates, Young said.

“My hope is that this story will remind us of our endocrine heritage and give us an opportunity to recognize the unlimited potential for discovery, research and clinical investigation that is taking place in research laboratories and clinical endocrine centers across the globe,” Young said in an interview. “In the current environment in the U.S., where federal research funds are being cut back, it is important to recall where the major advances in research and public health have come from.”

“There are many other messages in the presentation,” Young said. “For example, the importance of ‘team science’— a phrase only recently coined — has been in place for decades. It is team science that has led to many of the major advances in medicine, including the therapeutic use of corticosteroids.” – by Regina Schaffer

Reference:

Young WF. A Chemist, a Patient and the 1950 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine: The Stories Behind the Stories on Cortisone. Presented at: The Endocrine Society Annual Meeting; April 1-4, 2017; Orlando, Fla.

Disclosures: Young reports no relevant financial disclosures.

 

From http://www.healio.com/endocrinology/adrenal/news/online/%7Bd8d71bcc-a981-418e-9d41-af4b2dcaa48f%7D/history-of-cortisones-discovery-offers-lessons-in-team-science-persistence

Filed under: adrenal, Endo2017 | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Prednisolone May Raise Cholesterol in Adrenal Insufficiency

Posted on April 4, 2017 by MaryO

Prednisolone treatment of patients with adrenal insufficiency is associated with significantly elevated total-and low-density-lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels compared with use of an alternative glucocorticoid, hydrocortisone, new data suggest.

Real-world data from the European Adrenal Insufficiency Registry (EU-AIR) were presented on April 2 here at ENDO 2017: The Endocrine Society Annual Meeting by Robert D Murray, MBBS, consultant endocrinologist and honorary associate professor at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, United Kingdom.

In an interview, Dr Murray told Medscape Medical News, “In addition to previous data showing that prednisolone can cause lower bone mass, we’ve now shown that it may raise cholesterol to a higher degree than hydrocortisone.”

Asked to comment, session moderator Constantine A Stratakis, MD, chief medical officer of the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, Bethesda, Maryland, said: “These are significant findings. I think that the difference he’s seeing may be mostly due to the differences in how glucocorticoids are metabolized locally in the liver and fat tissues.”

Regarding clinical implications, Dr Stratakis said, “These data point to the need for using hydrocortisone. Clearly, at these doses anyway, you have increases in LDL and cholesterol with prednisolone.”

Indeed, the new findings support recent recommendations from the Endocrine Society to use hydrocortisone as first-line glucocorticoid replacement therapy for primary adrenal insufficiency.

But the huge cost difference between the two generic medications has led some to suggest otherwise. In 2014, the BMJ published editorials arguing both for and against the preferred use of prednisolone.

During his presentation, Dr Murray reported that in the United Kingdom, an annual supply of 5-mg prednisolone (one tablet a day) costs about £16 and 3 mg (three 1-mg tablets a day) about £48, compared with £1910 for a year’s supply of twice-daily 10-mg hydrocortisone.

(Hydrocortisone is also considerably more expensive than prednisolone in the United States, although the differential isn’t quite as dramatic.)

Dr Murray pointed out that about 75% of the patients in the database were taking 5 mg/day of prednisolone and that although that’s within the recommended range (3–5 mg/day), it might be too much. “I suspect this isn’t related to the steroid use, but that we may actually have gotten the doses wrong, and we may need a smaller dose of prednisolone. I think probably in reality the ideal dose is probably nearer to 3.5 to 4 mg. Therefore, I think we may be slightly overtreating these people and both the bone mass and the cholesterol may be a reflection of that.

“I think for now we have to stay with hydrocortisone as our mainstay of treating adrenal insufficiency, but I think more studies need to be done in patients taking 3.5 to 4.0 mg to then look at the effects on cholesterol, bone mass, and other markers….It would be quite a significant saving if we were able to move patients to prednisolone,” he added.

Dr Stratakis commented, “I have to say the price difference to me is amazing.” Asked about Dr Murray’s dose hypothesis, he responded, “It is possible we may be giving more prednisolone than we should. Also, there might be important differences in the handling of glucocorticoids at the tissue level, in fat and liver, specifically, that we don’t account for.”

Hydrocortisone vs Prednisolone

Beginning his presentation, Dr Murray noted that data on risk factors for cardiovascular disease in patients with adrenal insufficiency treated with prednisolone are scarce, despite this condition being the predominant cause of excess mortality, and so in this analysis he and his colleagues aimed to address this gap in the literature.

EU-AIR is a prospective, observational study, initiated in August 2012 to monitor the long-term safety of glucocorticoids in patients with adrenal insufficiency, and of 946 enrolled — in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom — 91.8% were using hydrocortisone for glucocorticoid replacement therapy compared to just 6.8% using prednisone, with marked heterogeneity in doses and frequency and timing of dosing (Endocrine Abstracts. 2015: DOI:10.1530/endoabs.37.EP39).

Other previous studies have found lower bone mass at the hip and spine with prednisolone compared with hydrocortisone-treated patients, but no quality-of-life difference between the two treatments, Dr Murray said.

The current study is the first patient-matched analysis of cardiovascular-risk-factor differences for the two glucocorticoid therapies. Patients were excluded if they were receiving more than one glucocorticoid, had congenital adrenal hyperplasia, were receiving modified-release hydrocortisone, or were receiving prednisolone or hydrocortisone doses outside the Endocrine Society’s recommended ranges.

Prior to matching, the 909 hydrocortisone patients were significantly more likely to be female, to have primary adrenal insufficiency, to be older, and to have longer disease duration. After matching three hydrocortisone patients for every one taking prednisolone, the 141 hydrocortisone and 47 prednisolone patients were similar for those factors: 62% were female, 40% had primary adrenal insufficiency, average age was around 59 years, and disease duration 23 years.

Both total cholesterol and LDL levels were significantly higher, at 6.3 and 3.9 mmol/L, respectively, in the prednisolone group compared with 5.4 and 3.2 mmol/L for hydrocortisone (both P < .05). However, there were no significant differences in rates of hypertension, diabetes (of either type), blood pressure, triglycerides, or HDL cholesterol.

In subgroup analysis, both total and LDL cholesterol were elevated among patients with primary adrenal insufficiency taking prednisolone, but among those with only secondary adrenal insufficiency, just total cholesterol was elevated with prednisolone.

Dr Stratakis told Medscape Medical News, “It is peculiar for me to see that the only difference he found from all the parameters he measured were in lipids, and specifically total cholesterol and LDL. I think the difference is tissue-specific.”

Dr Murray said it’s certainly plausible that the current prednisolone dosing is too high for two reasons: First, in the United Kingdom prednisolone comes in 1-mg and 5-mg tablets, so taking 5 mg/day is simpler than taking the lower end of the recommended range.

Second, “hydrocortisone is cortisol, so you know what the body produces and about what your levels should be, but you can’t do that with prednisone because it’s an analog. So, we’re guessing, and I think we’ve guessed too high.”

Dr Murray is a speaker and consultant to Shire. Disclosures for the coauthors are listed in the abstract. Dr Stratakis has no relevant financial relationships.   

For more diabetes and endocrinology news, follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.

ENDO 2017. April 2, 2017; Orlando, Florida. Abstract OR03-5

 

From http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/878097

Filed under: adrenal, Endo2017, Rare Diseases | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Bimonthly Growth Hormone Injections to Replace Daily Injections?

Posted on April 3, 2017 by MaryO

At the Annual ENDO 2017 meeting in Orlando, FL, Moore et al provided an update on somavaratan, the long acting recombinant human growth hormone being investigated for children and adults with growth hormone deficiency.

Current treatment for these patients is somewhat burdensome given the need for daily subcutaneous injections. Somavaratan provides the option for bimonthly injections.

At ENDO 2017, 3 year data was presented in children given somavaratan and the data is impressive.

The 3 year data is part of an ongoing extension study following a 6 month Phase 2 trial in which 64 patients received 5.0 mg/kg/month at various dosing schedules. Of those patients, 60 continued in an open label extension study (dose adjusted to 3.5 mg/kg given twice-monthly by the beginning of Year 2 of treatment).  At ENDO 2017, data from 30 of those patients who had completed 3 years of treatment were presented.

(Insulin-like growth factor standard deviation score (IGF-I SDS) increased from -1.7 ± 0.8 at baseline to 1.1 ± 1.6 at peak (3–5 days post-injection) and -0.2 ± 0.9 at trough (end of dosing cycle) in Year 3. Of the 30 patients, 8 had transient IGF-I SDS excursions > 2.0, of which 3 events were > 3.0 (range, 2.3–3.9).

Height velocity (HV) remained consistent at 8.5 ± 1.8, 8.5 ± 1.7, and 8.1 ± 1.5 cm/year, for years 1, 2, and 3 respectively.

Height-SDS increased from -2.6 ± 0.5 at baseline to -1.9 ± 0.6, -1.4 ± 0.7, and -1.0 ± 0.7 at years 1, 2, and 3, respectively.

Treatment-related adverse events were generally mild and transient.

In an exclusive interview with Rare Disease Report, one of the investigators of the study, Bradley Miller, MD, PhD, of the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital, said that compliance is an issue with growth hormone replacement therapy and any options that can remove the daily injection requirements would likely be well received by both patients and clinicians.

A Phase 3 study is currently underway to comparing bimonthly somavaratan treatment with daily growth hormone treatments (NCT02339090).

Somavaratan is being developed by Versartis Inc

About Growth Hormone Deficiency 

Growth hormone deficiency occurs when the pituitary gland does not produce enough growth hormone, resulting in short stature, delayed or absent puberty, and changes in muscle mass, cholesterol levels, and bone strength. The condition can be congenital, structural (malformations in the brain) or acquired (resulting from trauma, infections, tumors, radiation therapy, or other causes).

Currently, the standard of care is subcutaneous injection of a biosynthetic recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH). The frequency of the injections is based on the patient’s level of growth hormone deficiency (ie, whether growth hormone is completely absent or some growth hormone is present), but most patients require daily administration.

The rhGH treatments are typically given until the child’s maximum growth potential is achieved, often requiring many years of treatment (and increasing the risk of poor compliance).

Reference

Moore WV, Fechner PY, Nguyan HJ, et al. Safety and Efficacy of Somavaratan (VRS-317), a Long-Acting Recombinant Human Growth Hormone (rhGH), in Children with Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD): 3-Year Update of the Vertical & VISTA Trials (NCT01718041, NCT02068521). Presented at: ENDO 2017; Orlando, FL; April 1-4, 2017. Abstract OE31-1.

From http://www.raredr.com/news/bimonthly-growth-hormone

Filed under: Cushing's, Endo2017, pituitary | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

%d bloggers like this: