Project description:BackgroundPhysical inactivity is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The benefits of exercise in patients with chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, are well established. For patients with sickle cell disease, medical recommendation was to avoid physical exercise for fear of triggering painful crises or increasing the impairment of the cardiopulmonary function. Only recently, studies have shown safety in exercise programs for this population. Despite that, there is no report that assess the effects of physical exercise on cardiac parameters in patients with sickle cell disease.ObjectiveThis study aimed to evaluate the impact of regular physical exercise (a home-based program) on cardiovascular function in patients with sickle cell disease.DesignA quasi-randomized prospective controlled trial.SettingDuring the years 2015 and 2016, we started recruiting among adult patients treated at a Brazilian Center for Patients with Sickle Cell Disease to participate in a study involving a home exercise program. The experimental (exercise) and control groups were submitted to clinical evaluation and cardiovascular tests before and after the intervention. Analysis of variance was applied to compare groups, considering time and group factors.ParticipantsTwenty-seven adult outpatients with a sickle cell disease diagnosis.InterventionsExercise group (N = 14): a regular home-based aerobic exercise program, three to five times per week not exceeding give times per week, for eight weeks; no prescription for the control group (N = 13).Main outcome measuresEchocardiographic and treadmill test parameters.ResultsThe exercise group showed significant improvement in cardiovascular tests, demonstrated by increased distance traveled on a treadmill (p<0.01), increased ejection fraction (p < 0.01) and improvement of diastolic function assessed by mitral tissue Doppler E' wave on echocardiography (p = 0.04). None of the patients presented a sickle cell crisis or worsening of symptoms during the exercise program.ConclusionThe selected home-based exercise program is safe, feasible, and promotes a favorable impact on functional capacity and cardiovascular function in sickle cell disease patients.
Project description:A burgeoning literature suggests that exercise has a therapeutic benefit in persons with Parkinson disease (PD) and in animal models of PD, especially when animals exercise at high intensity. If exercise is to be prescribed as "first-line" or "add-on" therapy in patients with PD, we must demonstrate its efficacy and dose-response effects through testing phases similar to those used in the testing of pharmacologic agents. The SPARX Trial is a multicenter, randomized, controlled, single-blinded, Phase II study that we designed to test the feasibility of using high-intensity exercise to modify symptoms of PD and to simultaneously test the nonfutility of achieving a prespecified change in patients' motor scores on the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). The trial began in May 2102 and is in the process of screening, enrolling, and randomly assigning 126 patients with early-stage PD to 1 of 3 groups: usual care (wait-listed controls), moderate-intensity exercise (4 days/week at 60%-65% maximal heart rate [HRmax]), or high-intensity exercise (4 days/week at 80%-85% HRmax). At 6-month follow-up, the trial is randomly reassigning usual care participants to a moderate-intensity or high-intensity exercise group for the remaining 6 months. The goals of the Phase II trial are to determine if participants can exercise at moderate and high intensities; to determine if either exercise yields benefits consistent with meaningful clinical change (nonfutility); and to document safety and attrition. The advantage of using a non-futility approach allows us to efficiently determine if moderate- or high-intensity exercise warrants further large-scale investigation in PD.
Project description:Objective is to quantify benefit-risk tradeoffs pertaining to potential gene therapies among adults and parents/caregivers of children with sickle-cell disease (SCD). A discrete-choice experiment (DCE) survey was developed in which respondents selected their preferred treatment alternatives in a series of experimentally-controlled pairs of hypothetical gene therapies and a "no gene therapy" option. Gene therapy alternatives were defined based on the chance of eliminating SCD symptoms, expected increases in life expectancy they could offer, treatment-related risk of death and potential increases in lifetime cancer risk. Respondents made selections based on their current disease severity and in the context of expectations of worsened disease. Three clinical sites and one patient organization recruited 174 adult patients and 109 parents of children with SCD to complete the survey. Adult and parent respondents were generally willing to choose gene therapies, but the adults required higher expected levels of efficacy (i.e., higher chance of eliminating symptoms) than parents to choose gene therapies that conferred mortality risks of 10% or more. When adults and parents of children with less severe symptoms were asked to consider scenarios of higher levels of disease severity, the risk tolerance increased, and the lowest acceptable level of efficacy for gene therapies with mortality risks dropped by more than 50%. Baseline SCD symptoms are a major driver of gene therapy acceptability. Adults and parents of patients with milder symptoms may prefer other treatment options; however, an expectation of symptoms deterioration triggers strong reassessment of the acceptable benefit-risk balance of this novel technology.
Project description:Early identification of infants with sickle cell disease (SCD) by newborn screening, now universal in all 50 states in the US, has improved survival, mainly by preventing overwhelming sepsis with the early use of prophylactic penicillin. Routine transcranial Doppler screening with the institution of chronic transfusion decreases the risk of stroke from 10% to 1% in paediatric SCD patients. Hydroxyurea decreases the number and frequency of painful crises, acute chest syndromes and number of blood transfusions in children with SCD. Genetic research continues to be driven toward the prevention and ultimate cure of SCD before adulthood. This review focuses on clinical manifestations and therapeutic strategies for paediatric SCD as well as the evolving topic of gene-focused prevention and therapy.
Project description:ObjectiveWe evaluated the safety of maximal cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) in individuals with sickle cell disease (SCD). Maximal CPET using gas exchange analysis is the gold standard for measuring cardiopulmonary fitness in the laboratory, yet its safety in the SCD population is unclear.DesignSystematic review.Data sourcesSystematic search of Medline (PubMed), EMBASE, Cochrane, ClinicalTrials.gov and professional society websites for all published studies and abstracts through December 2020.Eligibility criteria for selecting studiesTwo reviewers independently extracted data of interest from studies that assessed safety outcomes of maximal CPET in children and adults with SCD. A modified version of the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess for risk of bias in studies included.ResultsIn total, 24 studies met inclusion/exclusion criteria. Adverse events were reported separately or as part of study results in 36 (3.8%) of 939 participants with SCD undergoing maximal CPET in studies included. Most adverse events were related to transient ischaemic changes on ECG monitoring or oxygen desaturation during testing, which did not result in arrhythmias or other complications. Only 4 (0.43%) of 939 participants experienced pain events due to maximal CPET.ConclusionMaximal CPET appears to be a safe testing modality in children and adults with SCD and can be used to better understand the physiological basis of reduced exercise capacity and guide exercise prescription in this population. Some studies did not focus on reporting adverse events related to exercise testing or failed to mention safety monitoring, which contributed to risk of bias.
Project description:Sickle cell syndromes, including sickle cell disease (SCD) and sickle cell trait, are associated with multiple kidney abnormalities. Young patients with SCD have elevated effective renal plasma flow and glomerular filtration rates, which decrease to normal ranges in young adulthood and subnormal levels with advancing age. The pathophysiology of SCD-related nephropathy is multifactorial - oxidative stress, hyperfiltration and glomerular hypertension are all contributing factors. Albuminuria, which is an early clinical manifestation of glomerular damage, is common in individuals with SCD. Kidney function declines more rapidly in individuals with SCD than in those with sickle cell trait or in healthy individuals. Multiple genetic modifiers, including APOL1, HMOX1, HBA1 and HBA2 variants are also implicated in the development and progression of SCD-related nephropathy. Chronic kidney disease and rapid decline in estimated glomerular filtration rate are associated with increased mortality in adults with SCD. Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors are the standard of care treatment for albuminuria in SCD, despite a lack of controlled studies demonstrating their long-term efficacy. Multiple studies of novel therapeutic agents are ongoing, and patients with SCD and kidney failure should be evaluated for kidney transplantation. Given the high prevalence and severe consequences of kidney disease, additional studies are needed to elucidate the pathophysiology, natural history and treatment of SCD-related nephropathy.
Project description:Exercise enhances learning and memory in animals and humans. The role of peripheral factors that may trigger the beneficial effects of running on brain function has been sparsely examined. In particular, it is unknown whether AMP-kinase (AMPK) activation in muscle can predict enhancement of brain plasticity. Here we compare the effects of running and administration of AMPK agonist 5-Aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide 1-β-D-ribofuranoside (AICAR, 500 mg/kg), for 3, 7 or 14 days in one-month-old male C57BL/6J mice, on muscle AMPK signaling. At the time-points where we observed equivalent running- and AICAR-induced muscle pAMPK levels (7 and 14 days), cell proliferation, synaptic plasticity and gene expression, as well as markers of oxidative stress and inflammation in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus and lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC) were evaluated. At the 7-day time-point, both regimens increased new DG cell number and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) protein levels. Furthermore, microarray analysis of DG and LEC tissue showed a remarkable overlap between running and AICAR in the regulation of neuronal, mitochondrial and metabolism related gene classes. Interestingly, while similar outcomes for both treatments were stable over time in muscle, in the brain an inversion occurred at fourteen days. The compound no longer increased DG cell proliferation or neurotrophin levels, and upregulated expression of apoptotic genes and inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β. Thus, an exercise mimetic that produces changes in muscle consistent with those of exercise does not have the same sustainable positive effects on the brain, indicating that only running consistently benefits brain function.
Project description:Sickle cell disease (SCD) afflicts millions of people worldwide and is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality. Chronic and acute vaso-occlusion are the clinical hallmarks of SCD and can result in pain crisis, widespread organ damage, and early movtality. Even though the molecular underpinnings of SCD were identified more than 60 years ago, there are no molecular or biophysical markers of disease severity that are feasibly measured in the clinic. Abnormal cellular adhesion to vascular endothelium is at the root of vaso-occlusion. However, cellular adhesion is not currently evaluated clinically. Here, we present a clinically applicable microfluidic device (SCD biochip) that allows serial quantitative evaluation of red blood cell (RBC) adhesion to endothelium-associated protein-immobilized microchannels, in a closed and preprocessing-free system. With the SCD biochip, we have analyzed blood samples from more than 100 subjects and have shown associations between the measured RBC adhesion to endothelium-associated proteins (fibronectin and laminin) and individual RBC characteristics, including hemoglobin content, fetal hemoglobin concentration, plasma lactate dehydrogenase level, and reticulocyte count. The SCD biochip is a functional adhesion assay, reflecting quantitative evaluation of RBC adhesion, which could be used at baseline, during crises, relative to various long-term complications, and before and after therapeutic interventions.