[Sialic Acid Replacement Therapy for Distal Myopathy with Rimmed Vacuoles]

Distal myopathy with rimmed vacuoles or GNE myopathy, is an early adult-onset myopathy with slow progression that preferentially affects the tibialis anterior muscle. Severely affected patients show marked limb muscle atrophy together with respiratory dysfunction. The disease is caused by a mutation in the GNE gene that catalyzes two rate-limiting reactions in cytosolic sialic acid synthesis. Oral treatment with sialic acid metabolite prevents muscle atrophy and weakness in a mouse GNE myopathy model and a global Phase III study is currently underway. In addition, a global patient registry of neuromuscular cases is widely accepted as a useful tool to obtain epidemiological data and bolster patient recruitment for further development of this treatment strategy.