On January 23, 2013, a formal clinical trial to evaluate HPβCD cyclodextrin therapy as a treatment for Niemann–Pick disease, type C was announced by scientists from the NIHs National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). In January 2021, the Sponsor (Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals) concluded that the benefit / risk balance for HPβCD cyclodextrin (adrabetadex) for the treatment of neurologic symptoms of NPC was negative, and that the risks associated with the treatment outweigh the potential benefit. Effective immediately, Mallinckrodt recommended that treatment with adrabetadex be discontinued as soon as possible, with the appropriate physician oversight. N-Acetyl-Leucine
N-Acetyl-Leucine is an orally administered, modified amino acid that is being developed as a novel treatment for multiple rare and common neurological disorders by IntraBio Inc (Oxford, United Kingdom).N-Acetyl-Leucine has been granted multiple orphan drug designations from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of various genetic diseases, including Niemann-Pick Disease Type C. The US FDA has granted IntraBio a Rare Pediatric Disease Designation for N-Acetyl-Leucine for the treatment of NPC.Observational studies in NPC patients have demonstrated the symptomatic, as well as disease-modifying, neuroprotective effect of treatment.
Research directions
Loss of myelin in the central nervous system is considered to be a main pathogenic factor. Research uses animal models carrying the underlying mutation for Niemann–Pick disease, e.g. a mutation in the NPC1 gene Niemann–Pick type C disease. In this model the expression of Myelin gene Regulatory Factor (MRF) has been shown to be significantly decreased. MRF is a transcription factor of critical importance in the development and maintenance of myelin sheaths. A perturbation of oligodendrocyte maturation and the myelination process might therefore be an underlying mechanism of the neurological deficits.Recent neuroimaging studies have shown patients with Niemann–Pick, type C to have a corpus callosum with microstructural abnormalities. Clear reductions in corpus callosum mean thickness and surface area have been shown when compared to age-matched controls. Also, studies using diffusion tensor imaging have shown marked reductions in callosal fractional anisotropy, which suggests architectural abnormalities based on the directional flow of water. These conclusions suggest that the corpus callosum plays an important role in the disease and should be explored for use as a biomarker of disease progression.Parents of children with NPC are being studied in an attempt to gain insight into the Ebola virus, which uses the protein encoded by NPC1 to enter cells. Researchers have found that mice with one normal copy of the NPC1 gene are more likely to survive Ebola infection than mice with normal two copies of the gene. Mice lacking any normal copy of NPC1 all survived.