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Treatment of Wilson's disease: what are the relative roles of penicillamine, trientine, and zinc supplementation?

New options are available for the medical treatment of patients with Wilson's disease. Penicillamine is no longer the treatment of choice, as there is a growing experience with safer and more effective alternatives. Trientine may be the best choice for initial therapy in symptomatic patients requiring chelation therapy, and it may be even more effective when used in combination with zinc, which is recommended for maintenance therapy. Further studies are needed to determine the best therapy for pregnant patients with Wilson's disease, and whether combination therapy using trientine and zinc will be the next treatment of choice for all symptomatic patients with liver or neurologic disease.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗

A comparison of the effects of penicillamine, trientine, and trithiomolybdate on [35S]-labeled metallothionein in vitro; implications for Wilson's disease therapy.

The synthesis of radiolabeled metallothionein was induced in rats in vivo by the injection of CuSO4 and [35S]-cysteine. Treatment of "cold" rat liver cytosol "spiked" with purified [35S] metallothionein with Penicillamine and Trientine showed that even at relatively high concentrations (up to 50 mg/g liver, wet weight), these compounds had no effect on the copper peak or the position of the [35S] label in the cytosol eluate after Sephadex G-75 gel filtration. By contrast, incubation of the "spiked" liver cytosol with Trithiomolybdate, even at relatively low concentrations (0.5 mg/g liver, wet weight), resulted in a transfer of metallothionein copper to high molecular weight protein fractions; the position of the [35S] apoprotein was unaffected. This copper "stripping" effect on metallothionein supports clinical and other evidence that thiomolybdates have a genuine decoppering effect in vivo whereas Penicillamine and Trientine have another mode of action and indicates that thiomolybdates might provide a more rational alternate therapy for Wilson's disease patients.

Animals↗

[Wilson's disease with severe neurological manifestations: response to trientine plus zinc therapy].

In patients with Wilson's disease and neurological manifestations, treatment with D-penicillamine can cause worsening of neurological symptoms, usually in the first few weeks of treatment. Because the neurological damage can be severe and irreversible, the use of D-penicillamine is controversial, and several authors believe that it should be avoided. Studies of the use of ammonium tetrathiomolybdate as an alternative chelating agent for the initial treatment of neurologic Wilson's disease are still in the experimental phase. Published experience on the simultaneous use of trientine, another chelating agent, and zinc, which blocks intestinal absorption of copper, is promising but limited. We present the case of a 17 year-old boy with severe neurologic Wilson's disease that had first presented six years previously. The patient showed a complete recovery after six months of treatment with a combination of trientine and zinc acetate.

Adolescent↗

The use of trientine in preventing the effects of interrupting penicillamine therapy in Wilson's disease.

Penicillamine is known to be effective therapy for Wilson's disease. However, the clinical consequences of the abrupt and permanent withdrawal of penicillamine have not been investigated. We studied 11 patients who stopped their own treatment after having been treated successfully with penicillamine (1 to 2 g per day) for periods of 3 to 19 years. Eight died of hepatic decompensation or fulminant hepatitis after an average survival of only 2.6 years. In another 13 patients, penicillamine was discontinued by the physician because of serious adverse reactions. In these patients, penicillamine was replaced with trientine (1 to 1.5 g per day), a newer chelating agent. All but one of these patients (who was killed accidentally) are alive at this writing, from 2 to 15 years later. Our observations suggest that discontinuation of penicillamine in patients with Wilson's disease results in rapid clinical deterioration, which is often fatal. The replacement of penicillamine with trientine appears to prevent this adverse clinical course.

Ethylenediamines↗

Treatment of Wilson's disease with triethylene tetramine hydrochloride (Trientine).

Penicillamine is the drug of choice for the treatment of Wilson's disease, whatever the stage of the illness. Toxic manifestations may preclude the use of this life-saving drug in some patients and discontinuation of penicillamine therapy usually leads to death. We report our experience with Trientine in seven patients, aged 13 to 33 years, with Wilson's disease who developed toxic manifestations with penicillamine that required discontinuation of therapy. These include two with nephrosis, one with neutropenia, two with thrombocytopenia, and one each with a SLE-like and a Henoch-Schonlein-like syndrome. The patients were treated for periods from 6 weeks to 16 years with a dose of 0.5 to 2 g/day. Trientine proved to be an effective alternative copper chelating agent in the treatment of Wilson's disease in patients with penicillamine-induced neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, SLE, and nephrosis. No serious untoward side effects were noted.

Administration, Oral↗

Evaluation of the efficacy of d-penicillamine and trientine as copper chelators using an in vitro technique involving ovine red blood cells.

An in vitro technique for haemolysing ovine red blood cells with copper sulphate was standardized to induce c 50% haemolysis with 0.5 mM CuSO4 after incubation for 14 h at 38 degrees C. This technique was then applied to test the efficacy of trientine and d-penicillamine in preventing haemolysis. Trientine concentrations of 0.5; 1.0 and 1.5 mM were found to be the most effective (P < 0.05) in reducing copper-induced haemolysis. One and 1.5 mM concentrations of d-penicillamine were also effective (P < 0.05), but in this experiment a 0.5 mM concentration failed to protect the erythrocytes.

Animals↗

Effects of an inhibitor of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase, desmethylselegiline, trientine, and lipoic acid in transgenic ALS mice.

The development of transgenic mouse models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) allows the testing of neuroprotective agents. We evaluated the effects of five agents in transgenic mice with the G93A Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase mutation. A novel inhibitor of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase showed no effects on survival. Desmethylselegiline and CGP3466 are agents that exert antiapoptotic effects in vitro by preventing nuclear translocation of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. They had no significant effects on survival in the G93A mice. Trientine, a copper chelator, produced a modest significant increase in survival. Similarly administration of lipoic acid in the diet produced a significant improvement in survival. These results therefore provide evidence for potential therapeutic effects of copper chelators and lipoic acid in the treatment of ALS.

Amphetamines↗

Treatment of Wilson's disease with zinc. XVIII. Initial treatment of the hepatic decompensation presentation with trientine and zinc.

We have treated 9 patients who presented with hepatic decompensation resulting from Wilson's disease with a combination of trientine and zinc, generally for at least 4 months, followed by transition to zinc maintenance therapy. All of these patients had hypoalbuminemia, all but 1 had hyperbilirubinemia, and 7 had ascites. All of these patients would have been candidates for liver transplantation on the basis of their initial Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) scores. The minimal listing criteria for transplant candidates is a score greater than 7. Eight of the 9 patients had demonstrated a CTP score of 10 or higher. The other scoring system that has been used in Wilson's disease to determine need for transplantation is the prognostic index of Nazer, in which a score over 6 indicates that the patient is unlikely to survive without a transplant if treated with penicillamine. Two of our patients had Nazer scores higher than 6. With our medical therapy, all 9 of these patients have recovered normal liver function as reflected by normalization of their CTP scores to 5. Because of coexisting neurologic disease, 1 of our 9 patients was initiated on a neurologic protocol and by chance randomized to receive tetrathiomolybdate (TM) and zinc after 2 weeks of trientine/zinc treatment. This patient's liver function recovered much more rapidly than did that of the other 8 patients, all of whom were treated with trientine/zinc, suggesting that TM therapy offers a further advantage. In summary, we were able to take 9 patients who presented with liver failure -8 of whom had CTP scores indicating a potential need for liver transplantation and 2 of whom had Nazer prognostic scores indicating that they were not likely to survive if treated only with penicillamine - and treat them medically, with recovery in all 9. We believe the trientine/zinc combination therapy should be the standard for initial treatment of liver failure in Wilson's disease because its efficacy is equal or slightly superior to that of penicillamine and because it has a much lower incidence of side effects. Moreover, TM warrants study to determine whether therapy for hepatic Wilson's disease can be further improved.

Adult↗

Treatment of Wilson's disease with trientine (triethylene tetramine) dihydrochloride.

Twenty patients with Wilson's disease in whom severe penicillamine intolerance developed have been managed with the orally active chelating agent trientine dihydrochloride (trien). The stage of illness of the patients ranged from the presymptomatic through severe neurological or hepatic disease to the "decoppered" postsymptomatic cases. Trien has proved to be a safe and highly effective treatment both for reversing symptoms and for maintaining patients previously successfully decoppered with penicillamine. There has been evidence of depletion of the body stores of copper by trien coinciding with the clinical improvement. In most of the patients the toxic symptoms which forced a change of therapy were reversed on trien therapy; however, elastosis perforans did not seem to benefit, and two patients with penicillamine-induced systemic lupus erythematosus were not helped by the change. No other toxic signs or symptoms were observed. There was no evidence of teratogenicity either in animals or in the six patients who became pregnant while taking trien; all six infants have developed normally. Trien is a satisfactory alternative therapy for Wilson's disease; its usefulness, is however, severely limited by the lack of a product license.

Adolescent↗

Benefit of a combined treatment with trientine and ascorbate in familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis model mice.

We previously reported that the common toxic gain-of-function in various mutant copper-zinc superoxide dismutases (SOD1) seen in patients with familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) was an abnormal copper release from the enzyme protein. In this study, trientine and ascorbate, known to have a beneficial effect in an animal model of Wilson disease, were administered to transgenic mice overexpressing a mutated human SOD1 (G93A). The onset of neurological signs in the treated group was significantly delayed compared with that in the control group, and the time to reach total paralysis in the treated group was delayed as well. Since the agents used in this study cause low toxicity in animals and humans, this treatment may be a good candidate for clinical application.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis↗

Treatment of nickel dermatitis with Trientine.

23 nickel-sensitive patients with hand eczema were treated with Trientine 300 mg daily and a placebo in a double-blind, crossover trial. No significant improvement occurred in the hand eczema. A surprising finding was that there was no detectable increase in urinary nickel excretion, in contrast to animal studies.

Adult↗

The management of pregnancy in Wilson's disease treated with trientine.

Seven patients with Wilson's disease, treated with trientine, have been followed during 11 pregnancies. Eight of these resulted in the delivery of normal infants, whilst one was very premature (31 weeks) and was later shown to have a chromosomal defect, isochromosome X. There was one therapeutic termination and one miscarriage associated with a contraceptive coil. The eight children are progressing satisfactorily and have been studied for periods varying from three months to nine years; all mothers are also doing well. The child with the isochromosome X is developing slowly; she shows no morphological abnormalities at this stage. The normal-for-age caeruloplasmin values found in the cord blood indicates that there was no significant copper depletion in the foetuses, as a result of treatment.

Adult↗

[Case of superficial hemosiderosis of the central nervous system treated with trientine].

A 58-year-old woman, with recurrent headaches, exhibited cerebellar alaxic gait, anosmia, deafness and a pyramidal syndrome, with a progressive onset. In cerebrospinal fluid there was erythrocytes and siderophages. MRI on T2-weighted images revealed a marginal hypo-intensity, leading to the diagnostic of superficial siderosis of the central nervous system. None haemorragic lesion was found. The patient was given Trientine. Unfortunately she worsened on later examinations.

Brain↗