Diacomit Add-On Therapy More Effective in Children With Dravet Syndrome Who Carry Pathogenic SCN1A Mutations, Study Shows

November 29, 2018

Researchers investigated the effectiveness of Diacomit add-on therapy to Depacon (valproate) and Onfi in Dravet syndrome patients carrying known pathogenic (disease-causing) mutations in the SCN1A gene.

Among children with pathogenic SCN1A mutations, Diacomit treatment was more effective in those carrying missense (single nucleotide mutation that alters protein composition) mutations (reduction of 87.50% in seizure frequency), compared to those carrying truncation (mutation that makes proteins shorter) mutations (reduction of 70.50% in seizure frequency).

However, Diacomit treatment was not favorable in children carrying mutations in regions between different domains, or between segments of the same domain of the SCN1A gene, or at splicing sites (regions of the gene that are prone to be removed or shifted to generate different proteins).

Despite “the relative smallness of the sample and it being designed as a retrospective review of clinical data, we were able to demonstrate that STP [stiripentol] has better efficacy in DS [Dravet syndrome] patients with definite SCN1A mutations than in DS patients with VOUS [variants of unknown significance] and benign SCN1A mutations,” researchers wrote.