A Phase 2 interventional study of AST-120 in Pouchitis, sponsored by Ocera Therapeutics. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 75 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2014-06-18.
Sponsored by Ocera Therapeutics (part of Keenova Therapeutics plc) · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment
The aim of the study is to assess the safety and efficacy of an investigational agent, AST-120, in treating patients with active pouchitis. This is an open-label trial which means that all patients will receive AST-120 in 2g sachets (packets)three times a day for 4 weeks. All antibiotics, probiotics and nutritional agents must have been discontinued for at least 2 weeks prior to study entry. An initial group of 10 patients will be enrolled. If there are no serious adverse events associated with the study drug and at least 3 of the 10 patients respond, a second group of 10 patients will be enrolled. In the second group of patients, those patients who are considered responders or who are in remission are eligible to receive open-label AST-120 for as long as response is maintained up to a maximum of 52 weeks. Patients will have clinic visits at the start of the study and at week 4. If continuing on open label AST-120 after week 4, patients will have clinic visits every 12 weeks to assess the continuing safety and efficacy of AST-120. Endoscopies will be performed at the start of the study, week 4, week 28, week 52 or early termination.
The management and prognosis vary in different types of pouchitis. For antibiotic-responsive pouchitis, the first-line therapy includes a 2-week course of metronidazole or ciprofloxacin. A relapsing course of pouchitis is common. Of the patients with acute pouchitis, 61% would develop at least one recurrence. Typically, patient's symptoms and endoscopic and histologic inflammation respond favorably to antibiotic therapy, but symptoms quickly recur when antibiotics are discontinued. This group of patients is classified as having antibiotic-dependent pouchitis and often requires long-term antibiotic or probiotic therapy to keep the disease in remission.
Although the majority of patients with active pouchitis respond favorably to antibiotic therapy, relapse is common, which often requires frequent antibiotic therapy. The concerns about frequent use of antibiotic agents are: 1)antibiotics such as metronidazole often cause adverse effects; 2)long-term or frequent use of antibiotics, including ciprofloxacin, metronidazole, and rifaximin, often leads to bacterial resistance. In clinical practice, we have encountered more and more patients with antibiotic-refractory pouchitis, which could largely be due to overuse of antibiotic agents; 3)UC patients with IPAA have an increased risk for the development of intra-abdominal infections, such as pouch leaks, abscess, and cholangitis from primary sclerosing cholangitis, which require antibiotic therapy with agents similar to the agents used in pouchitis. Bacterial resistance developed from the overuse of antibiotics for pouchitis might jeopardize the treatment of other intra-abdominal infections; 4) overuse of antibiotics can lead to overload of certain commensal bacteria or pathogenic bacteria, leading to pouch inflammation. Therefore, safe and effective agents are needed to treat active pouchitis, particularly on a long-term basis.
AST-120 is manufactured by Kureha Corporation, Japan. The agent was approved in Japan in 1992 for the treatment of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). It is comprised of highly adsorptive, porous, spherical carbon particles and is packaged in 2 g sachets for oral administration designed for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. AST-120 consists of black microspheres approximately 0.2-0.4 mm in diameter with high adsorption ability and large surface area. Composed mainly of carbon (approximately 96%), the clinical utility of AST-120 is thought to reside in its ability to adsorb low molecular weight toxins, inflammatory mediators, and harmful bile acid products from the gastrointestinal tract, preventing local toxicity and their systemic absorption. AST-120 has a selective adsorption profile for certain acidic and basic organic compounds, and has a significantly lower adsorptive capacity than activated charcoal for digestive enzymes.
This study is an open-label pilot trial in which all patients will receive AST-120 in 2 g sachets three times a day (to be taken between meals at 10:00 am, 3:00 pm, and immediately before going to bed) for 4 complete weeks. AST-120 is a tasteless, odorless, oral preparation. To take the product, patients will tear open the sachets, drop the contents directly on their tongue and wash it down with 8 ounces of water. All antibiotics, probiotics and nutritional agents must have been discontinued for at least 2 weeks prior to study entry. For purposes of this trial response is defined as a > or = 3 point reduction in the 18-point PDAI scoring system. Remission is defined as a PDAI score \< 7.
The study population will consist of patients with active pouchitis after ileal pouch-anal anastomosis for Ulcerative Colitis (UC) present with primary symptoms such as increased stool frequency and abdominal pain. The diagnosis of active pouchitis will be defined by a PDAI score > 7 points, with a combined assessment of symptoms, endoscopy, and histology.
An initial cohort of 10 patients will be enrolled. Based on the efficacy outcome (at least 3 out of 10 patients responding) and safety outcome (no significant adverse event associated with study drug) a second cohort of 10 patients will be treated. Patients in the second cohort who are considered responders (i.e., have had at least a 3 point reduction in the 18 point PDAI scoring system) or who are in remission (PDAI\<7) are eligible to receive open-label AST-120 for as long as response is maintained up to a maximum of 52 weeks. If, at any time, the patient relapses (PDAI>7 for patients who were in remission, or an increase in PDAI such that at least a 3 point reduction is not maintained for responders), open-label treatment will be discontinued and the patient will be removed from the study. Patients will also discontinue open-label treatment and be removed from the study if warranted by treatment-emergent safety concerns or if, in the opinion of the investigator, it is in the patient's best interest to discontinue the study.
50 studies on the registry are indexed under Pouchitis; 12 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 19 is close to the median of 20 across 42 interventional studies indexed under Pouchitis.
Browse Pouchitis studies →Ocera Therapeutics is the lead sponsor of 7 studies on the registry; none are open to participants now.
First submitted before Ocera Therapeutics became part of Keenova Therapeutics plc.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
Relapsed: the illness came back after treatment had worked. Refractory: it did not respond to treatment, or stopped responding while still on it.
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Postmenopausal
Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Contraception
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Childbearing potential
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ALT and AST (liver enzymes)
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Investigational drug or device
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Immunosuppression
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Relapsed and refractory
Relapsed: the illness came back after treatment had worked. Refractory: it did not respond to treatment, or stopped responding while still on it.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Corticosteroids (steroids)
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
AST-120, 2grams, three times daily
Drug: AST-120
Remission induction as defined by a Pouchitis Disease Activity Index (PDAI) score < 7 (Sandborn et al, Mayo Clin Proc 1994), as well as maintenance of remission over 12 months
Time frame: 4 weeks induction, 12 months maintenance of remission
Safety: Any adverse events (AEs) deemed possibly, probably, or definitely related to treatment with investigational product
Time frame: 4 weeks induction, 12 months maintenance of remission
Response defined as a > or = 3 point reduction in the 18-point PDAI scoring system
Time frame: 4 weeks, weeks 28 and 52
Reduction of PDAI clinical symptom score, range from 0 to 6 (e.g., stoll frequency returns to the normal baseline)
Time frame: 4 weeks, weeks 28 and 52
Reduction of PDAI endoscopic score, range from 0 to 6
Time frame: 4 weeks, weeks 28 and 52
Reduction of PDAI histology score, range from 0 to 6
Time frame: 4 weeks, weeks 28 and 52
Need for rescue medication or increased quantity of antidiarrheal medication used during the trial
Time frame: 4 weeks, weeks 28 and 52
Quality of Life (Cleveland Global Quality of Life [CGQL] and Short Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire [SIBDQ]
Time frame: 4 weeks, through 52 weeks
Clinical laboratory tests including liver transaminases and alkaline phosphatase
Time frame: 4 weeks, through 52 weeks
Worsening GI symptoms (diarrhea, abdominal pain, urgency or bleeding) or new GI and ex-intestinal systemic symptoms (such as headache, nausea, vomiting, and constipation)
Time frame: 4 weeks, through 52 weeks
Physical examination, vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate and temperature)
Time frame: 4 weeks, through 52 weeks
This study is completed, as verified in Jun 2014. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Studies of the drugs tested here: AST 120 · Charcoal