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Active, not recruitingNCT04800692ATLASUpdated Apr 15, 2026

The Effects of ATLAS Therapy on Nitric Oxide Bioavailability in Patients With Intermittent Claudication

A Phase 1 interventional study of Tetrahydrobiopterin 10 mg/kg and Tetrahydrobiopterin 20 mg/kg in Claudication, Intermittent, Peripheral Artery Disease and Peripheral Vascular Diseases, sponsored by Louis Messina. Active, not recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-04-15.

Sponsored by Louis Messina · Phase 1, Interventional, and Other

Phase
Phase 1
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
10
Allocation
Non-randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

This study will focus on people with claudication from peripheral arterial disease. The investigators are researching whether a multicomponent therapeutic can increase the production of Nitric Oxide in the blood and whether that leads to an improvement in pain free walking distance and overall physical activity.

Read the detailed description

The primary objective of this study is to show that ATLAS Therapy, (L-Arginine; Tetrahydrobiopterin; L-Ascorbate) is bioavailable in humans and exerts a measurable effect on its in vivo biological signature, Flow Mediated Vasodilation (FMD) in people with intermittent claudication caused by peripheral arterial disease. This will be a Phase I / dose finding study. All subjects will receive 2 different drug doses of the Kuvan the first 45 days they will receive 10 mg/kg/day. The second 45 days they will receive 20/mg/kg/day.

02

Conditions studied

  • Claudication, Intermittent
  • Peripheral Artery Disease
  • Peripheral Vascular Diseases
03

In context

Intermittent Claudication

309 studies on the registry are indexed under Intermittent Claudication; 46 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 10 is below the median of 74 across 242 interventional studies indexed under Intermittent Claudication.

Browse Intermittent Claudication studies →

Lead sponsor

This is the only study on the registry with Louis Messina as lead sponsor.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

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.

Inclusion criteria

  • PAD as demonstrated by an ABI \<0 .9 in one leg or TBI less than \<0.7 in patients with an ABI >1.3 (non compressible vessels)
  • Rutherford Classification II, III
  • Age >18 years old
  • Willingness to discontinue phosphodiesterase (PDE) 5 inhibitors such as Viagra, Cialis, Levitra, Revatio
  • Willingness to discontinue phosphodiesterase (PDE) 3inhibitors cilostazol, milrinone or Vesnarinone
  • Willing and able to comply with all study procedures
  • Willing and able to provide
  • Sexually active subjects willing to use an acceptable method of while participating in the study

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Hypotension defined as a systolic blood pressure less than 100mmhg systolic at screening or baseline visit
  • Critical Leg Ischemia (Rutherford Classification IV, V, VI)
  • Surgical intervention to alleviate symptoms of claudication in the study leg within the past 6 months or any endovascular interventions within 3 months or who is scheduled to undergo surgical revascularization in the next 6 month
  • Walking limited by reasons other than claudication (e.g. arthritis, lung disease, severe neuropathy, lower extremity amputation except single digits)
  • Serum creatinine >1.5mg/dl or Hepatic enzymes >2X the
  • Serum potassium greater than 5.0 or use of a potassium sparing diuretic at screening
  • Pregnant, breast feeding or planning to become pregnant (subject or partner) at any time during the study.
  • Myocardial Infarction, Cerebrovascular Accident or deep vein thrombosis within 12 months of screening
  • Known history of nephrolithiasis
  • History of ever having a seizure
  • Concurrent disease or condition that would interfere with study participation or safety such as bleeding disorders, organ transplant, long term (excluding inhaled ), current neoplasm or severe gastroesophageal reflux
  • History of vertigo or syncope within the past 10 years
  • Enrollment in another drug or device study within 30 days of screening
  • Required treatment with a drug known to inhibit folate metabolism (e.g. Methotrexate)
  • Taking any of the following medications; PDE3 Inhibitors, PDE5 inhibitors, trental, nitrates, ginkgo biloba, levodopa, warfarin,
  • Axillary lymph node dissection
  • Presence of an amputation except single digits in either leg
  • Preexisting illness that limits ambulation such as severe , class III-IV heart failure, severe arthritis or back pain
  • Glucose-6-dehydrogenase deficiency
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(6)

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.

Informed consent

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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.

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.

ULN (upper limit of normal)

The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.

“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.

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.

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.

COPD

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: long-term lung disease that makes it hard to breathe out, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 1
Primary purpose
Other
Allocation
Non-randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
10 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Tetrahydrobiopterin Dose 1 (Day 0 to 44)

    All subjects will receive 3300mg l-Ascorbate , l-Arginine 3400mg and 10mg/kg of Tetrahydrobiopterin once a day.

    Drug: Tetrahydrobiopterin 10 mg/kg · Drug: L-Ascorbate · Drug: L-Arginine

  • Experimental
    Tetrahydrobiopterin Dose 2 (Day 45 to 90)

    All subjects will receive 3300mg l-Ascorbate, l-Arginine 3400mg and 20mg/kg of Tetrahydrobiopterin once a day.

    Drug: Tetrahydrobiopterin 20 mg/kg · Drug: L-Ascorbate · Drug: L-Arginine

Interventions

  • DrugTetrahydrobiopterin 10 mg/kg

    Drug page: Sapropterin

    10mg/kg of Tetrahydrobiopterin daily.

    Also known as: sapropterin, kuvan

  • DrugTetrahydrobiopterin 20 mg/kg

    Drug page: Sapropterin

    20mg/kg of Tetrahydrobiopterin daily.

    Also known as: sapropterin, kuvan

  • 3300 mg of l-ascorbate once daily

  • 3400mg of l-arginine once daily

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Nitric Oxide bioavailability

    Nitric Oxide bioavailability as measured by flow mediated dilatation (FMD).

    Time frame: 90 days

07

Study locations

1 site
  • UMASS Memorial Healthcare - University Campus
    Worcester, Massachusetts 01655, United States
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Apr 15, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04800692
Lead sponsor
Louis Messina
Responsible party
Louis Messina (Professor, University of Massachusetts, Worcester) — Sponsor-investigator
First posted
Mar 16, 2021
Start date
Jun 15, 2021
Primary completion
Jul 2027 (estimated)
Completion
Dec 2027 (estimated)
Last update
Apr 15, 2026

Study contacts

Louis M Messina, MD
principal investigator · UMASS Medical School

Oversight

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

Not currently enrolling

This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in Apr 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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Discussion

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Studies of the drug tested here: Sapropterin

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