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Objective: To investigate the efficacy and safety of aceneuramic acid extended-release (Ace-ER), a treatment intended to replace deficient sialic acid, in patients with GNE myopathy. Methods: UX001-CL301 was a Phase 3, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, international study evaluating the efficacy and safety of Ace-ER in patients with GNE Myopathy. Participants who could walk ≥200 meters in a 6-minute walk test at screening were randomized 1:1, and stratified by sex, to receive Ace-ER 6g/day or placebo for 48 weeks and assessed every 8 weeks. The primary endpoint was change in muscle strength over 48 weeks measured by Upper Extremity Composite (UEC) score. Key secondary endpoints included change in Lower Extremity Composite (LEC) score, knee extensor strength, and GNE myopathy-Functional Activity Scale (GNEM-FAS) mobility domain score. Safety assessments included adverse events (AEs), vital signs, and clinical laboratory results. Results: Eighty-nine patients were randomized (Ace-ER n = 45; Placebo n = 44). Change from baseline to week 48 for UEC score between treatments did not differ (least square mean [LSM] Ace-ER -2.25 kg vs Placebo -2.99 kg; LSM difference (confidence interval [CI]) 0.74 (-1.61, 3.09); p = 0.5387). At week 48, there was no significant difference between treatments for the change in key secondary endpoints: LEC LSM difference (CI) -1.49 (-5.83, 2.86); knee extension strength -0.40 (-2.38, 1.58); and GNEM-FAS mobility domain score -0.72 (-2.01, 0.57). Gastrointestinal events were the most common AEs. Conclusions: Ace-ER was not superior to placebo in improving muscle strength and function in patients with GNE myopathy. Lochmuller et al UX001 CL301 MS supp materials protocol 13Dec2018Supplemental Material for Lochmuller et al Neurology: Table e-1. Change from Baseline to Week 48 in UEC and LEC Individual Muscle Groups with Hand-Held Dynamometry; Figure e-1. UX001-CL301 CONSORT Flow Diagram; UX001-CL301 Protocol

Objective: The aim of this study was to expand the spectrum of epilepsy syndromes related to STX1B, encoding the presynaptic protein syntaxin-1B, and establish genotype-phenotype correlations by identifying further disease-related variants. Methods: We used next generation sequencing in the framework of research projects and diagnostic testing. Clinical data and EEGs were reviewed, including already published cases. To estimate the pathogenicity of the variants, we used established and newly developed in silico prediction tools. Results: We describe 15 new variants in STX1B which are distributed across the whole gene. We discerned four different phenotypic groups across the newly identified and previously published patients (49 patients in 23 families): 1) Six sporadic patients or families (31 affected individuals) with febrile and afebrile seizures with a benign course, generally good drug response, normal development and without permanent neurological deficits; 2) two patients with genetic generalized epilepsy without febrile seizures and cognitive deficits; 3) 13 patients or families with intractable seizures, developmental regression after seizure onset and additional neuropsychiatric symptoms; 4) two patients with focal epilepsy. More often we found loss-of-function mutations in benign syndromes, whereas missense variants in the SNARE motif of syntaxin-1B were associated with more severe phenotypes. Conclusion: These data expand the genetic and phenotypic spectrum of STX1B-related epilepsies to a diverse range of epilepsies that span the ILAE classification. Variants in STX1B are protean and contribute to many different epilepsy phenotypes, similar to SCN1A, the most important gene associated with fever-associated epilepsies. Supplements_STX1B_WolkingSupplement_Figures

Background: Cannabinoids induce biphasic effects on memory depending on stress levels. We previously demonstrated that different stress intensities, experienced soon after encoding, impaired rat short-term recognition memory in a time-of-day-dependent manner, and that boosting endocannabinoid anandamide (AEA) levels restored memory performance. Here, we examined if two different stress intensities and time-of-day alter hippocampal endocannabinoid tone, and whether these changes modulate short-term memory. Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to an object recognition task and exposed, at two different times of the day (i.e., morning or afternoon), to low or high stress conditions, immediately after encoding. Memory retention was assessed 1 hr later. Hippocampal AEA and 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2-AG) content and the activity of their primary degrading enzymes, fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) and monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL), were measured soon after testing. Results: Consistent with our previous findings, low stress impaired 1-hr memory performance only in the morning, whereas exposure to high stress impaired memory independently of testing time. Stress exposure decreased AEA levels independently of memory alterations. Interestingly, exposure to high stress decreased 2-AG content and, accordingly, increased MAGL activity, selectively in the afternoon. Thus, to further evaluate 2-AG's role in the modulation of short-term recognition memory, rats were given bilateral intra-hippocampal injections of the 2-AG hydrolysis inhibitor KML29 immediately after training, then subjected to low or high stress conditions and tested 1 hr later. Conclusions: KML29 abolished the time-of-day-dependent impairing effects of stress on short-term memory, ameliorating short-term recognition memory performance.