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Status unknownNCT04328415BREINUpdated Mar 31, 2020

Blood-Brain Barrier Evaluation In Nephrology (BREIN)

An interventional study of Cerebral scintigraphy in End Stage Renal Disease and Cognitive Impairment, sponsored by Assistance Publique Hopitaux De Marseille. Status unknown at 1 site in France. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2020-03-31.

Sponsored by Assistance Publique Hopitaux De Marseille · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified Mar 2020), so the status shown — last known as Not yet recruiting — may be out of date.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
30
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
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Study summary

Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) have impaired psycho-cognitive functions in parallel with deteriorating kidney function. The pathophysiology of cognitive impairment in CKD is poorly understood and there is currently no therapy to limit cognitive decline. As kidney function deteriorates, uremic toxins accumulate in the patient's body. Their cerebral toxicity, whether direct or indirect through cerebral endothelial dysfunction, is a hypothesis that may explain the cognitive abnormalities, as well as the increased severity of strokes in patients with CKD. Among uremic toxins, indoxyl sulfate (IS) is an indolic toxin that is poorly purified by dialysis and whose high levels have already been shown to be associated with an increased cardiovascular risk in patients with CKD. Our hypothesis is that the psycho-cognitive disorders observed in patients with CKD are linked to cerebral endothelial dysfunction associated with high levels of IS.

In two models of CKD in rats, found impaired cognitive performance and increased blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability, as assessed by brain scintigraphy with 99mTc-DTPA, compared to healthy control rats. Impaired cognitive performance was correlated with BBB permeability and circulating IS levels. Rats receiving an IS-enriched diet had higher BBB permeability and more impaired cognitive performance than MRC rats without an IS-enriched diet, suggesting a central role of IS.

The 99mTc-DTPA brain scintigraphy has already been used in clinical research to assess the BBB disruption after stroke, outside the context of CKD, and the tracer is available in human nuclear medicine.

Our hypothesis is that patients with CKD would have increased permeability of the BBB compared to healthy age- and sex-matched controls, and that this permeability would correlate with circulating levels of IS as in our preclinical animal models.

The main objective of this project is to evaluate the permeability of the BBB by brain scintigraphy with 99mTc-DTPA in patients with end-stage CKD and compare it to healthy age- and sex-matched controls.

A 18-month inclusion period will allow us to recruit 15 patients with end-stage CKD and 15 healthy volunteers matched in age and gender, as an important number of patients with end-stage CKD are followed in our department. If we confirm the results obtained in animal models, we will be able to propose the analysis of BBB disruption in isotope imaging as a criterion for evaluating therapeutic approaches modulating the toxicity of indolic uremic toxins in order to limit cognitive decline.

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Conditions studied

  • End Stage Renal Disease and Cognitive Impairment
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In context

Kidney Failure, Chronic

2,085 studies on the registry are indexed under Kidney Failure, Chronic; 261 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 30 is below the median of 55 across 1,557 interventional studies indexed under Kidney Failure, Chronic.

Browse Kidney Failure, Chronic studies →

Lead sponsor

Assistance Publique Hopitaux De Marseille is the lead sponsor of 686 studies on the registry; 148 are open to participants now.

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

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

  • Patients :

    • over 18 years old
    • social security recipients
    • in chronic hemodialysis at least 3 times 4 hours a week for at least 3 months
    • having a negative pregnancy test less than 2 weeks old for women of childbearing age
    • who have given informed consent to participate in the study
  • Healthy controls, matched in age (+/- 5 years) and sex to a patient :

    • over 18 years old
    • social security recipients
    • having a negative pregnancy test less than 2 weeks old for women of childbearing age
    • who have given informed consent to participate in the study

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

    • Patients and healthy controls :
  • Pregnant or breastfeeding women, a negative pregnancy test less than 2 weeks old will be required prior to inclusion for women of childbearing age.
  • Majors under legal protection
  • Lack of affiliation to a social security scheme
  • Inability to give informed consent
  • Persons deprived of liberty
  • Date of last menstrual period > 1 month in the absence of effective contraception in patients of childbearing age with a conserved menstrual cycle
  • Known neurodegenerative disease
  • Major Cardiovascular Disease : Unbalanced hypertension (defined as systolic blood pressure > 160 mmHg), history of stroke or coronary artery disease.
  • Ongoing neoplastic or infectious disease
  • Taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs within 48 hours before inclusion
  • Ongoing drug treatment that may induce attention and/or cognitive deficits (anticholinergics, sedatives, neuroleptics)
  • Known hypersensitivity to the radiotracer or a component of it

    • Patients :
  • Non-compliance with dialysis sessions
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Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Other
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
30 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    healthy volunteers

    Radiation: Cerebral scintigraphy

  • Experimental
    patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

    Radiation: Cerebral scintigraphy

Interventions

  • RadiationCerebral scintigraphy

    Radioactive tracer 99mTc-DTPA

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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Ratio of intracerebral activity of 99mTc-DTPA (marker of BBB rupture) to total injected activity

    Quantification of the intracerebral radioactivity of 99m-Tc DTPA by a senior nuclear physician, blinded from the other participants' data, in ratio to the total injected dose

    Time frame: 1 day

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Study locations

1 site
  • Assistance Publique Des Hopitaux de Marseille
    Marseille, 13354, France
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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Mar 31, 2020, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04328415
Lead sponsor
Assistance Publique Hopitaux De Marseille
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Mar 31, 2020
Start date
Jun 1, 2020 (estimated)
Primary completion
Jan 7, 2022 (estimated)
Completion
Jun 7, 2022 (estimated)
Last update
Mar 31, 2020

Study contacts

Mickael BOBOT
Contact
mickael.bobot@ap-hm.fr
+33 (0)4 91 38 30 42
Emilie GARRIDO-PRADALIE
study director · ASSISTANCE PUBLIQUE DES HOPITAUX DE MARSEILLE

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

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

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