News

People with rare diseases know that the right government policies can make a big difference in the quality of their own lives, and those of their caregivers. But most lawmakers aren’t experts in even one well-known disease — let alone the world’s estimated 7,000 rare disorders. So how does the…

A novel gene therapy developed by 4D Molecular Therapeutics can increase gene delivery to the heart without triggering an immune response, according to preclinical data. The gene therapy candidate is anticipated to enter human clinical trials in 2020. The findings were presented in a scientific poster, “A Novel…

A single injection with candidate gene therapy FLT190 showed positive results in a mouse model of Fabry disease by significantly increasing blood levels of GLA — the enzyme affected in this disease — and reducing Gb3 storage levels in the heart and kidney, the therapy’s developer, Freeline,…

One-time administration in mice of a gene therapy candidate known as ST-920 led to substantial increases in the activity of the key Fabry disease enzyme alpha-GalA and marked reductions in the levels of the fatty molecules that accumulate in patients with this disease. A Phase 1/2 clinical trial testing…

RaDaR, the catchy new name for the U.S. government-run Rare Diseases Registry Program, aims to help patient advocacy groups with limited resources build their own disease registries. The site was developed by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), a division of the National Institutes of…

Fabry disease shares some manifestations with rheumatic diseases, which has raised concerns of wrongful diagnosis and consequent delayed treatment. Still, patients with this rare genetic disease are unlikely to be systematically overlooked in clinical rheumatology practice, results of a genetic analysis of German patients with early undifferentiated arthritis shows. The…

With 250 rare diseases newly identified every year, scientists can barely keep up — even as the healthcare system fails millions of Americans whose rare diseases have already been diagnosed. That’s the warning from Christopher P. Austin, MD, director of the National Center for Advancing Translational Studies (NCATS) at…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Avrobio’s clinical program for AVR-RD-01 as a gene therapy candidate for the treatment of Fabry disease. Supported by the FDA’s decision, AvroBio will expand patient recruitment for its Phase 2 FAB-201 clinical trial (NCT03454893) to include patients across…

Cumbersome security procedures, rising airfares, and shrinking legroom have made commercial air travel difficult enough these days — even for healthy passengers. Imagine how much harder it is for patients with rare diseases who must get to doctors’ appointments or clinical trials that are hundreds of miles away from home.

Patients with mild Fabry disease do not have a higher prevalence or severity of obstructive sleep apnea when compared with the general population, a study suggests. However, these patients experience more daytime sleepiness and more airflow blockages during sleep, and any of these problems…