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CompletedNCT01458470MITIGATE-HDUpdated Jan 13, 2020

A Trial of Memantine as Symptomatic Treatment for Early Huntington Disease

A Phase 2 interventional study of Memantine and Placebo in Huntington Disease, sponsored by University of British Columbia. Completed at 1 site in Canada. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 75 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2020-01-13.

Sponsored by University of British Columbia · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
19
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 75 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Huntington disease is characterized by difficulties in movement and thinking. Psychological disturbances including irritability, aggression, loss of interest, depressed mood, obsessions and compulsions, also represent common symptoms of HD. These symptoms are distressing both for HD patients and their caregivers, contribute to the loss of ability to carry out activities of daily living, and present a major treatment challenge for physicians. The goal of this study is to determine the effect of memantine on movement, thinking and emotional difficulties in HD patients. Memantine is a medication originally approved for the treatment of aggression and agitation in patients with moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease (AD), which has also recently been shown to improve the behavioural and neuropathological symptoms in a mouse model of Huntington Disease (HD).

Read the detailed description

TRACK-HD was a multi-centre, multi-national, prospective, observational study of pre-manifest and early Huntington's disease (HD) with a control group of volunteers not carrying the HD mutation. The goal of the project was to contribute essential methodology that will form the basis for clinical trials in pre-manifest and early HD. TRACK-HD complemented existing observational studies (e.g., Predict-HD, PHAROS, COHORT), sharing some features, but also having areas of unique emphasis.

The UBC site recruited 90 subjects including 30 control subjects, 30 asymptomatic pre-manifest HD gene carriers and 30 subjects with early symptoms of HD (stage 1 or 2). All subjects were assessed using the TRACK-HD battery at baseline, 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years. Following the fourth visit (3 year assessment), the TRACK-HD study will be completed, and the 30 subjects with early symptoms of HD will be invited to enroll in the MITIGATE-HD Study.

The MITIGATE-HD study is a single center Phase IIb,out-patient,randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of memantine treatment in subjects with Huntington disease (HD). The study will evaluate Memantine 10 mg two times daily (BID) administered orally (PO) for six months (24 weeks) compared with matching placebo BID. Safety and tolerability will be assessed by recording of adverse events and by monitoring of vital signs, physical examinations, and suicidality risk scores.

The TRACK-HD assessment battery will be administered to all subjects after six months of study drug administration. The effects of memantine will be evaluated both against placebo as well as compared to the previous 3 years of observational data from the TRACK-HD Study.

02

Conditions studied

  • Huntington Disease

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Keywords

  • huntington
  • huntingtin
  • memantine
  • ebixa
  • namenda
03

In context

Huntington Disease

285 studies on the registry are indexed under Huntington Disease; 49 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 19 is below the median of 40 across 203 interventional studies indexed under Huntington Disease.

Browse Huntington Disease studies →

Lead sponsor

University of British Columbia is the lead sponsor of 1,309 studies on the registry; 253 are open to participants now.

Of its 6 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 1 (17%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 75 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

To be eligible for the study, a subject must be enrolled in the early HD cohort of the TRACK-HD study and:

  • be at least 18 years of age and not older than 65
  • able to provide written consent
  • carry the abnormal HD gene and show early symptoms of HD
  • be able and willing to comply with study requirements, including travel to study center
  • have no metal implants to be suitable for MRI scans and able to tolerate them
  • able to tolerate blood draws
  • be of stable medical, psychiatric and neurological health at the time of enrollment
  • not have a history of significant head injury
  • not have a history of significant hand injury that would prevent either writing or performing rapid computer tasks
  • not be abusing drugs and/or alcohol that may cause failure to comply with study procedures
  • not be currently participating in PREDICT-HD or a clinical drug trial.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

Prospective subjects will be excluded if:

  • they are younger than 18 years of age and older than 65
  • they are unable to provide written consent
  • they show advanced symptoms of HD if they are HD gene carriers
  • they are unwilling to comply with study requirements, including travel to study center
  • they are unsuitable for MRI (e.g, claustrophobia, metal implants) or unable to tolerate them
  • they are unable to tolerate blood draws; or,
  • they have a major psychiatric disorder, concomitant significant neurological disorder or concomitant significant medical illness at the time of enrollment
  • they have a history of CNS disease or significant head injury; or,
  • they have a history of significant hand injury that would prevent either writing or performing rapid computer tasks; or,
  • they are likely to be non-compliant with study procedures due to drug and/or alcohol abuse; or,
  • they are participating in PREDICT-HD or a clinical drug trial at the time of enrollment.
  • they are not sighted
  • English is not their first language
  • they are currently or treated within the last 6 months with antipsychotic medications, including the traditional neuroleptics such as haloperidol as well as the atypical antipsychotics risperidone, clozapine, quetiapine and olanzapine
  • they are use phenothiazine-derivative antiemetic medications such as prochlorperazine, metoclopramide, promethazine and Inapsine on a regular basis (greater than 3 times per month)
  • they have a history of learning disability and/or mental retardation.
05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Double (Participant, Investigator)
Enrollment
19 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Memantine

    NMDA Receptor Antagonist

    Drug: Memantine

  • Placebo comparator
    Sugar pill

    Other: Placebo

Interventions

  • DrugMemantine

    oral tablet, 1 BID, 24 weeks

    Also known as: Ebixa, DIN 02260638, Namenda

  • OtherPlacebo

    oral tablet, 1 BID, 24 weeks

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Utility of TRACK-HD study endpoints in a clinical trial setting

    To examine the clinical utility of novel trial endpoints (such as Putaminal NAA measured by MRS) developed in the TRACK-HD study in the setting of a placebo-controlled therapeutic trial.

    Time frame: 24 weeks

Secondary outcomes

  1. Neuropsychiatric and Cognitive Test Scores

    To examine effect of memantine versus placebo on the scores of: a) the irritability and agitation/aggression sub-categories of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI), and also the total NPI, b) cognitive tests: Circle Tracing , Symbol Digit Modality, Stroop Word Reading, and Spot the Change, c) total HD-ADL, d) total UHDRS, and the UHDRS sub-scale: Cognitive, Behavioural, Functional, and Independence scales. e) In patients recruited at the UBC study site, the effect on striatal N-acetyl aspartate levels (a measure of neuronal dysfunction) will be assessed by Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy.

    Time frame: 24 weeks

07

Study locations

1 site
  • The Centre for Huntington Disease
    Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 2B5, Canada
08

References and documents

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jan 13, 2020, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01458470
Lead sponsor
University of British Columbia
Collaborators
Huntington Society of Canada, Huntington Study Group
Responsible party
Blair Leavitt (Associate Professor, Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia) — Principal investigator
First posted
Oct 24, 2011
Start date
Sep 2011
Primary completion
Aug 2012
Completion
Nov 2012
Last update
Jan 13, 2020

Study contacts

Blair R. Leavitt, MD,CM,FRCPC
principal investigator · University of British Columbia
Michael R. Hayden, MD,ChB,PhD
study chair · The University of British Columbia

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Jan 2020. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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