An interventional study of ghrelin in Cystic Fibrosis, sponsored by Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Status unknown at 1 site in United Kingdom. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 80 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2010-07-27.
Sponsored by Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust · Not applicable, Interventional, and Health services research
Background to ghrelin Ghrelin is a naturally occurring hormone found in the blood which stimulates appetite. In healthy individuals, levels of ghrelin are high before a meal and falls afterwards. Previous studies have shown that giving ghrelin (by injection) to thin patients with renal failure and cancer increases their food intake. Furthermore, addition of ghrelin may also reduce inflammation within the body. Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease which frequently results in recurrent lung infections (leading to progressive inflammatory lung damage) and low body weight. Low body weight in CF is associated with increased lung infections, rapidly worsening lung function and a shortened life expectancy.
The researchers postulate that administration of extra ghrelin to CF patients with low body weight may increase food intake and reduce lung inflammation. If successful, this study might identify ghrelin as a potential therapy for CF patients to improve nutrition, decrease lung inflammation and thereby improve survival.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of a naturally occuring hormone called ghrelin on appetite, energy expenditure and immune function in patients with cystic fibrosis.
Theoretical framework:
Despite advances in the molecular understanding of the disease, life-expectancy in Cystic Fibrosis (CF) remains severely limited. Reduced body-weight is associated with increased inflammatory lung damage and is a major predictor of mortality in CF patients. Malnutrition is highly prevalent in the CF population and results from both poor food intake and excessive energy expenditure. A therapy which improves nutrition may therefore have a significant effect on the prognosis of this disease. Ghrelin is the only physiological circulating factor that is known to increase food intake. Administration of acylated ghrelin to humans increases both hunger and food intake and has been found to increase appetite in chronic disease states associated with anorexia and weight loss (such as cancer and chronic renal disease). From multiple animal and in vitro human studies, ghrelin also appears to have anti-inflammatory properties which would potentially benefit CF patients in whom a chronic inflammatory state promotes lung destruction, malnutrition and increases mortality. Ghrelin replacement may therefore improve nutrition and decrease the inflammatory burden in CF patients, leading to an improvement in life-expectancy. If ghrelin is identified as having an important pathophysiological role in CF it may lead to a future study of its efficacy as a therapeutic agent.
Design Methodology: The study has three sections:
1,581 studies on the registry are indexed under Cystic Fibrosis; 190 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 20 is below the median of 36 across 1,034 interventional studies indexed under Cystic Fibrosis.
Browse Cystic Fibrosis studies →Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is the lead sponsor of 62 studies on the registry; 8 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Exclusion Criteria:
Biological: ghrelin
subcutaneous injection
Appetite
Time frame: 4 weeks
weight
Time frame: 4 weeks
This study is status unknown, as verified in Jul 2010. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust