The results of a clinical trial against FSH myopathy, the most common form of the disease, were recently published in the scientific journal Free Radical Biology & Medicine, and show the beneficial effect of antioxidants in countering muscle breakdown.
The myopathy FSH, or facio-scapulo-humeral, is a genetic pathology which progressively weakens the muscles, and in particular the muscles of the face here, before spreading to the whole body.
A team from the Montpellier CHRU has developed a “Cocktail” of antioxidants composed among others of vitamin E, vitamin C and zinc, which has improved muscle function in patients who received the supplementation.
The clinical trial took place on 53 patients over 17 weeks, and took place in a double-blind fashion: neither the patient nor the prescribing doctor knew whether it was the placebo or the real treatment. This testing technique is used so as not to distort the final results.
At the end of 4 months of treatment, the patients who received the true supplementation showed significant improvements in the quadriceps strength tests and the 2-minute walk, compared to the control group given the placebo.
For the scientific community, this treatment represents an important advance, and gives patients the hope of slowing down the disease, while waiting for a treatment targeting the origin of the symptoms: the progressive degradation of the muscles.
It is the abnormal activation of the DUX4 gene which causes a surplus of free radicals, oxidizing molecules, which causes the destruction of muscle proteins and is at the origin of myopathy.
The antioxidants would therefore make it possible, initially, to counter the effect of this overexpressed DUX4 gene, while waiting to find how to prevent this harmful over-activation.
For the time being, the Montpellier CHRU considered that the results were convincing enough to offer treatment to patients with myopathy FSH who will come to the Hospital.
