Updated Evaluation of Agalsidase Alfa Enzyme Replacement Therapy for Patients with Fabry Disease: Insights from Real-World Data.

The clinical use of agalsidase alfa as enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) for Fabry disease (FD) has spread since 2001, and a large body of evidence of its effectiveness has been collected. This review presents the clinical and laboratory results achieved with agalsidase alfa, which has been published in the literature. Agalsidase alfa infusion slows down or stops the progression of renal damage, expressed by reduction or stabilization of the annual decline of the glomerular filtration rate; yearly decrease of glomerular filtration rate (slope) sometimes is reduced until its stabilization. ERT prevents or reduces the occurrence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or slows the increase over time if it is already present. Moreover, regarding neurological manifestations, ERT improves neuropathic pain and quality of life, and recent data indicated that it may also prevent the burden of cerebrovascular disease. In addition to ERT's clinical benefits, crucial topics like the most appropriate time to start therapy and the role of anti-drug antibodies (ADA) are analyzed. Treatment with agalsidase alfa in patients with FD substantially improves their outcomes and enhances their quality of life in patients with FD.

Patient-reported experience with Fabry disease and its management in the real-world setting: results from a double-blind, cross-sectional survey of 280 respondents.

BACKGROUND: Fabry disease (FD) is a rare X-linked lysosomal storage disorder with a heterogeneous clinical presentation. Patients with FD may exhibit early signs/symptoms including neuropathic pain, gastrointestinal complaints, and dermatologic manifestations. FD may ultimately progress to renal, neurologic, and cardiac dysfunction. Current treatments for FD have significantly improved the management and outcomes for patients with FD, but important clinical and convenience limitations still exist. METHODS: To illuminate the impact of FD on daily life from the patient's perspective, we asked adult patients (≥ 18 years old) with FD in the United States and Canada to complete a 33-question online survey to assess patient-reported disease severity, management, and treatment outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 280 respondents with FD completed the survey; they had a mean age of 47 years, and 68% (191/280) were women. Most were currently receiving FD treatment (84%, 234/280) with enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) (89%, 208/234) or chaperone therapy (11%, 26/234). Common symptoms included low energy/fatigue (72%, 201/280), tingling (62%, 174/280) or pain in the hands/feet (60%, 168/280), ringing in ears/hearing loss (54%, 151/280), general body pains/pain crises (51%, 143/280), and abdominal/stomach pain (50%, 140/280). More than half (51%, 144/280) of respondents reported their symptoms as bothersome (38%, 106/280) or difficult to control (14%, 38/280). Temporary symptom worsening between infusions was reported by about half of respondents: 51% (108/211) currently receiving ERT and 48% (14/29) previously receiving ERT. Only 48% (59/122) of respondents reported their symptom worsening to their physician. Of those who reported it, 41% (24/59) said that their physician prescribed medication to manage their symptoms or changed their treatment regimen. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis highlights the gap between current standard-of-care in disease monitoring and patient perception of disease progression among patients with FD. This information may be helpful for healthcare providers and drug developers seeking to improve the care of patients with FD by addressing unmet needs of high relevance.

Long-Term Clinical-Pathologic Results of Enzyme Replacement Therapy in Prehypertrophic Fabry Disease Cardiomyopathy.

BACKGROUND: The limited ability of enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) in removing globotriaosylceramide from cardiomyocytes is recognized for advanced Fabry disease cardiomyopathy (FDCM). Prehypertrophic FDCM is believed to be cured or stabilized by ERT. However, no pathologic confirmation is available. We report here on the long-term clinical-pathologic impact of ERT on prehypertrophic FDCM. METHODS AND RESULTS: Fifteen patients with Fabry disease with left ventricular maximal wall thickness ≤10.5 mm at cardiac magnetic resonance required endomyocardial biopsy because of angina and ventricular arrhythmias. Endomyocardial biopsy showed coronary small-vessel disease in the angina cohort, and vacuoles in smooth muscle cells and cardiomyocytes ≈20% of the cell surface containing myelin bodies at electron microscopy. Patients received α-agalsidase in 8 cases, and ß-agalsidase in 7 cases. Both groups experienced symptom improvement except 1 patients treated with α-agalsidase and 1 treated with ß-agalsidase. After ERT administration ranging from 4 to 20 years, all patients had control cardiac magnetic resonance and left ventricular endomyocardial biopsy because of persistence of symptoms or patient inquiry on disease resolution. In 13 asymptomatic patients with FDCM, left ventricular maximal wall thickness and left ventricular mass, cardiomyocyte diameter, vacuole surface/cell surface ratio, and vessels remained unchanged or minimally increased (left ventricular mass increased by <2%) even after 20 years of observation, and storage material was still present at electron microscopy. In 2 symptomatic patients, FDCM progressed, with larger and more engulfed by globotriaosylceramide myocytes being associated with myocardial virus-negative lymphocytic inflammation. CONCLUSIONS: ERT stabilizes storage deposits and myocyte dimensions in 87% of patients with prehypertrophic FDCM. Globotriaosylceramide is never completely removed even after long-term treatment. Immune-mediated myocardial inflammation can overlap, limiting ERT activity.

Vericiguat improves cardiac function and microcirculation of a male patient with Fabry disease: A case report.

Fabry disease (FD) is a rare X chromosome-linked disorder and can be easily misdiagnosed. Here, we report the case of a 69-year-old male patient with FD who developed heart failure and showed extremely high pulmonary artery pressure. His initial symptom was recurrent atrial fibrillation. The left and right atrial inner diameters were large, and the ventricular wall was thick. Gene analysis which showed GLA c.215T>C p.Met72Thr mutation and single photon emission computed tomography indicated the diagnosis of FD with coronary microvascular dysfunction. The patient was prescribed anti-heart failure drugs, including vericiguat. Following the treatment, his heart function and microvascular perfusion significantly improved, which might be due to the beneficial effects of vericiguat.

Anderson-Fabry disease management: role of the cardiologist.

Anderson-Fabry disease (AFD) is a lysosomal storage disorder characterized by glycolipid accumulation in cardiac cells, associated with a peculiar form of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Up to 1% of patients with a diagnosis of HCM indeed have AFD. With the availability of targeted therapies for sarcomeric HCM and its genocopies, a timely differential diagnosis is essential. Specifically, the therapeutic landscape for AFD is rapidly evolving and offers increasingly effective, disease-modifying treatment options. However, diagnosing AFD may be difficult, particularly in the non-classic phenotype with prominent or isolated cardiac involvement and no systemic red flags. For many AFD patients, the clinical journey from initial clinical manifestations to diagnosis and appropriate treatment remains challenging, due to late recognition or utter neglect. Consequently, late initiation of treatment results in an exacerbation of cardiac involvement, representing the main cause of morbidity and mortality, irrespective of gender. Optimal management of AFD patients requires a dedicated multidisciplinary team, in which the cardiologist plays a decisive role, ranging from the differential diagnosis to the prevention of complications and the evaluation of timing for disease-specific therapies. The present review aims to redefine the role of cardiologists across the main decision nodes in contemporary AFD clinical care and drug discovery.

Lessons learned from the Canadian Fabry Disease Initiative for future risk-sharing and managed access agreements for pharmaceutical and advanced therapies in Canada.

Risk sharing agreements (RSAs) and managed access agreements have emerged as tools to overcome evidentiary uncertainty and contain costs of pharmaceuticals; however, Canada has relatively little experience with these health policy instruments. This article describes one of the few examples of national RSAs. Enzyme replacement therapies (ERT) were introduced in Canada to treat Fabry disease in the early 2000s through an RSA. Based on qualitative interviews with key participating actors, this article explains how this RSA ensured continuity of treatment for patients already on ERT, and collected robust real-world evidence to secure treatment for future Fabry patients. We show the importance of partnerships, collaborations, and active patient communities in establishing RSAs, as well as the critical role of robust registries for the collection, storage, and use of that real-world data. In doing so, this paper points to reasons that explain the relative dearth of RSAs in Canada, which can be resource (both human and finance) intensive and are difficult to broker in a federalist health system. Through these findings, policy lessons are developed concerning the need for technological and governance platforms on how RSA in Canada can be more effectively supported going forward in a broader move towards "social pharmaceutical innovation".

Globotriaosylsphingosine improves risk stratification of kidney progression in Fabry disease patients.

BACKGROUND: Kidney damage is common in patients with Fabry disease (FD), but more accurate information about the risk of progression to kidney failure is needed for clinical decision-making. In particular, FD patients with mild renal involvement often lack timely intervention and treatment. We aimed to utilize a model to predict the risk of renal progression in FD patients. METHODS: Between November 2011 and November 2019, ERT-naive patients with FD were recruited from three medical centers in China. To assess the risk of a 50% decline in the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) or end-stage kidney disease (ESKD), Cox proportional hazards models were utilized. The performance of these models was assessed using discrimination, calibration, and reclassification. RESULTS: A total of 117 individuals were enrolled. The mean follow-up time was 4.8 years, during which 35 patients (29.9 %) progressed to the composite renal outcomes. Male sex, baseline proteinuria, eGFR and globotriaosylsphingosine (Lyso-Gb3) were found to be independent risk factors for kidney progression by the Cox model, based on which a combined model containing those clinical variables and Lyso-Gb3 and clinical models including only clinical indicators were constructed. The two prediction models had relatively good performance, with similar model fit measured by R2 (59.8 % vs. 61.1 %) and AIC (51.54 vs. 50.08) and a slight increase in the C statistic (0.949 vs. 0.951). Calibration curves indicated closer alignment between predicted and actual renal outcomes in the combined model. Furthermore, subgroup analysis revealed that Lyso-Gb3 significantly improved the predictive performance of the combined model for kidney prognosis in low-risk patients with a baseline eGFR over 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 or proteinuria levels less than 1 g/d when compared to the clinical model. CONCLUSIONS: Lyso-Gb3 improves the prediction of kidney outcomes in FD patients with a low risk of progression, suggesting that these patients may benefit from early intervention to assist in clinical management. These findings need to be externally validated.

Complement activation and cellular inflammation in Fabry disease patients despite enzyme replacement therapy.

Defective α-galactosidase A (AGAL/GLA) due to missense or nonsense mutations in the GLA gene results in accumulation of the glycosphingolipids globotriaosylceramide (Gb3) and its deacylated derivate globotriaosylsphingosine (lyso-Gb3) in cells and body fluids. The aberrant glycosphingolipid metabolism leads to a progressive lysosomal storage disorder, i. e. Fabry disease (FD), characterized by chronic inflammation leading to multiorgan damage. Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) with agalsidase-alfa or -beta is one of the main treatment options facilitating cellular Gb3 clearance. Proteome studies have shown changes in complement proteins during ERT. However, the direct activation of the complement system during FD has not been explored. Here, we demonstrate strong activation of the complement system in 17 classical male FD patients with either missense or nonsense mutations before and after ERT as evidenced by high C3a and C5a serum levels. In contrast to the strong reduction of lyso-Gb3 under ERT, C3a and C5a markedly increased in FD patients with nonsense mutations, most of whom developed anti-drug antibodies (ADA), whereas FD patients with missense mutations, which were ADA-negative, showed heterogenous C3a and C5a serum levels under treatment. In addition to the complement activation, we found increased IL-6, IL-10 and TGF-ß1 serum levels in FD patients. This increase was most prominent in patients with missense mutations under ERT, most of whom developed mild nephropathy with decreased estimated glomerular filtration rate. Together, our findings demonstrate strong complement activation in FD independent of ERT therapy, especially in males with nonsense mutations and the development of ADAs. In addition, our data suggest kidney cell-associated production of cytokines, which have a strong potential to drive renal damage. Thus, chronic inflammation as a driver of organ damage in FD seems to proceed despite ERT and may prove useful as a target to cope with progressive organ damage.

Case report: enzyme replacement therapy for Fabry disease presenting with proteinuria and ventricular septal thickening.

Fabry disease (FD) is an uncommon, X-linked, lysosomal storage disease that causes defects in the glycosphingolipid metabolic pathway due to deficient or absent lysosomal α-galactosidase (α-Gal A) activity. This leads to the accumulation of globotriaosylceramide (GL-3) within lysosomes in a wide range of cells, including endothelial, cardiac, renal, and corneal cells, and consequently, the progressive appearance of clinical symptoms in target organs. Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT), which involves the exogenous supplementation of α-Gal A enzyme and has been successfully administered for treating FD.Here, we report a case of a 37-year-old male with complaints of recurrent proteinuria and ventricular septal thickening. A renal biopsy revealed vacuolization and foamy changes in podocytes, and the presence of myelin-like bodies and zebra bodies. The white blood cell α-Gal A activity was very low, while the Lyso-GL-3 level was high. Additionally, genetic analysis revealed a gene variant c.902G > A p. Arg301Gln. The patient was diagnosed with FD, and subsequently received intravenous ERT with a dose of Agalsidase α (0.2 mg/kg, 17.5 mg every 2 weeks). Currently, the values of proteinuria and ventricular septum thickness remain stable during the 6-month follow-up. Initiating ERT at an early age can effectively decrease the deposition of GL-3, attenuate the progressive clinical manifestations of FD, and provide greater long-term benefits.

Phase 1 Healthy Volunteer Study of AL01211, an Oral, Non-brain Penetrant Glucosylceramide Synthase Inhibitor, to Treat Fabry Disease and Type 1 Gaucher Disease.

Glycosphingolipid (GSL) storage diseases are caused by deficiencies in the enzymes that metabolize different GSLs in the lysosome. Glucosylceramide synthase (GCS) inhibitors reduce GSL production and have potential to treat multiple GSL storage diseases. AL01211 is a potent, oral GCS inhibitor being developed for the treatment of Type 1 Gaucher disease and Fabry disease. AL01211 has minimal central nervous system penetration, allowing for treatment of peripheral organs without risking CNS-associated adverse effects. AL01211 was evaluated in a Phase 1 healthy volunteer study with single ascending dose (SAD) and multiple ascending dose (MAD) arms, to determine safety, pharmacokinetics including food effect, and pharmacodynamic effects on associated GSLs. In the SAD arm, AL01211 showed a Tmax of approximately 3.5 hours, mean clearance (CL/F) of 130.1 L/h, and t1/2 of 39.3 hours. Consuming a high-fat meal prior to dose administration reduced exposures 3.5-5.5-fold, indicating a food effect. In the MAD arm, AL01211 had an approximately 2-fold accumulation, reaching steady-state levels by 10 days. Increasing exposure inversely correlated with a decrease in GSL with plasma glucosylceramide and globotriacylceramide reduction from baseline levels, reaching 78% and 52% by day 14, respectively. AL01211 was generally well-tolerated with no AL01211 associated serious adverse events, thus supporting its further clinical development.

Baseline Characteristics of Fabry Disease "Amenable" Migalastat Patients in Argentinian Cohort.

Fabry disease (FD) is a multisystem lysosomal storage disorder induced by genetic variants in the alpha-galactosidase A (αGalA) gene. Some FD patients have GLA variants with a reduction in overall αGalA enzymatic activity due to mutated proteins with reduced stability, caused by protein misfolding and premature degradation, but the αGalA catalytic activity remains conserved ("amenable" genetic variants). To correct this misfolding and to prevent premature degradation, migalastat, a small iminosugar molecule was developed. We report the clinical characteristics of FD "amenable" cohort patients from Argentina, prior to starting treatment with migalastat. Seventeen Fabry adult patients were recruited from 13 Argentinian Centers; 8 males (47.1%) and 9 females (52.9%) were included. All genotypes included were missense-type "amenables" mutations. Some classic FD typical early manifestations were more frequent in patients with "classic" versus "late-onset" FD phenotype (pain, p=0.002; cornea verticillata, p=0.019). There was a statistically significant difference in estimated glomerular filtration rate in the "classic" versus "late-onset" phenotype (p=0.026) but no difference between genders (p=0.695). Left ventricular mass was similar between genders (p=0.145) and phenotypes (p=0.303). Cardiovascular risk factors were present among "late-onset" females (obesity 50% and smoke 25%). In patients who started "de novo" migalastat, the main indications were (i) heart disease, (ii) kidney damage, and (iii) pain, while in "switched from prior enzyme replacement therapy" patients, the most frequent indication was "patient decision;" this coincides with publications by other authors.

Fabry App: the value of a portable technology in recording day-to-day patient monitored information in patients with Fabry disease.

BACKGROUND: Fabry disease is a rare inherited disorder resulting from deficient α-galactosidase A enzyme activity. Common disease manifestations are sweating abnormalities, neuropathic pain, gastrointestinal symptoms and fatigue. Challenges are faced by health care professionals in evaluating symptom burden in the current clinical setting, and the demand for alternative methods for monitoring disease-specific symptoms has seen an acceleration in recent years. Smartphone technologies offer the potential for continuity of care and surveillance. As a part of a quality improvement project, a disease specific app was developed in collaboration with a software company (Health Touch Ltd) and made available for patient use in May 2018. The Fabry mobile app records five categories: pain, gastrointestinal symptoms, sweating, activity levels, medications. Fabry disease patients with gastrointestinal and pain symptoms attending the Lysosomal Storage Disorders Unit of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust were reviewed to assess eligibility and invited to download the app for recording their symptoms (activity, sweating, pain and gastrointestinal) and medications. Patient-generated data were transmitted to a secure website for clinicians to review. RESULTS: One-hundred and thirty-nine symptomatic Fabry disease patients who had a smartphone (iPhone or android) were invited to download the app. Sixty-seven patients (26 males and 41 females; median age, 49 years [range, 20-81]) downloaded and tracked the Fabry App at least once. The median frequency of use per patient was 6 (range, 1-629). Pain in the hands and abdominal pain were significantly higher (p = 0.009 and p = 0.007, respectively) in patients with classic phenotype compared with patients with non-classic phenotypes. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated the feasibility and acceptability of a smartphone app to facilitate the remote assessment and monitoring of Fabry disease symptom burden on a daily/weekly basis, as an alternative to the current standard of care that requires patients to recall their symptoms during 6 to 12 monthly annual clinic visits. Patients who were more likely to use the app had greater disease burden. This innovation has the potential to assess disease progression, early therapeutic intervention, thereby decreasing the burden of morbidity and mortality among Fabry patients, and to record long-term effects of Fabry-specific therapies.

A case series of Fabry diseases with CKD in Japan.

BACKGROUND: It is well known that kidney injury is vital organ damage in Fabry disease (FD). Renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors are known to reduce proteinuria in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) by dilating the glomerular export arteries and reducing intraglomerular pressure. This improvement in intraglomerular pressure, although lowering the glomerular filtration rate, is thought to prevent renal damage and be renoprotective in the long term. RAS inhibitors may be effective in FD patients with proteinuria to prevent the progression of kidney disease, however, the degree to which they are used in clinical practice is unknown. METHODS: The J-CKD-DB-Ex is a comprehensive multicenter database that automatically extracts medical data on CKD patients. J-CKD-DB-Ex contains data on 187,398 patients in five medical centers. FD patients were identified by ICD-10. Clinical data and prescriptions of FD patients between January 1 of 2014, and December 31 of 2020 were used for the analysis. RESULTS: We identified 39 patients with FD from the J-CKD-DB-Ex including those with suspected FD. We confirmed 22 patients as FD. Half of the patients received RAS inhibitors. RAS inhibitors tended to be used in CKD patients with more severe renal impairment. CONCLUSIONS: This case series revealed the actual clinical practice of FD patients with CKD. In particular, we found cases in which patients had proteinuria, but were not treated with RAS inhibitors. The database was shown to be useful in assessing the clinical patterns of patients with rare diseases.

Clinical study of left ventricular structure and function in patients with Anderson-Fabry disease before and after enzyme replacement therapy.

AIMS: Cardiac left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is the most common manifestation of heart involvement in Anderson-Fabry disease (AFD). Conventional cardiac imaging is not sensitive enough to detect early signs of LVH in AFD. It remains uncertain whether enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) can prevent LVH progression and improve myocardial function. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (2D-STE) in early detection of cardiac involvement in AFD and monitoring the efficacy of agalsidase alfa and agalsidase beta therapy. METHODS AND RESULTS: Thirteen consecutive AFD patients and 12 healthy controls underwent standard transthoracic 2D, color Doppler, tissue Doppler echocardiography, and 2D strain analysis. Global longitudinal strain (GLS) and global circumferential strain (GCS) were measured. Diastolic strain rate (SR) was extracted. Compared to healthy subjects, AFD patients without LVH showed lower levels of GLS (p < 0.001) and SR (p = 0.01), while there was no difference in GCS (p = 0.82). Following treatment, apical circumferential strain (ACS) showed improvement (p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: In AFD patients without LVH, there was a decrease in global and segmental LS. Higher plasma Lyso-GL-3 concentrations were associated with elevated ACS values after ERT, indicating that ACS in AFD patients without LVH, albeit normal, is involved in early LV dysfunction.