Treatment of sporadic inclusion body myositis with bimagrumab

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Bimagrumab, published as a randomized controlled trial.

To study activin signaling and its blockade in sporadic inclusion body myositis (sIBM) through translational studies and a randomized controlled trial.

Who Took Part

The study group was 50 patients.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, both men and women.

The researchers measured transforming growth factor β signaling by SMAD2/3 phosphorylation in muscle biopsies of 50 patients with neuromuscular disease (17 with sIBM).

Twelve of the patients (10 bimagrumab, 2 placebo) participated in a subsequent 16-week observation phase.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Bimagrumab study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Bimagrumab, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Some patients received a placebo instead of Bimagrumab, giving a reference point.

The primary outcome was the change in right thigh muscle volume by MRI at 8 weeks.

Lean body mass, strength, and function were secondary outcomes.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Activin Receptors, Type II, Antibodies, Blocking, Antibodies, Monoclonal, Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized, Exercise Test, Immunologic Factors and Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Bimagrumab in 50 patients.

Results are reported in around 6 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2014 (Neurology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Bimagrumab compound page.