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Tirzepatide Monotherapy in Patients With Wolfram Syndrome Type 1

NCT05659368 · Unknown status

Last updated 2026-05-28

This clinical trial is testing whether tirzepatide, a medication, can help people with Wolfram Syndrome Type 1 by affecting their body's natural insulin production.

Status Unknown status The sponsor has not confirmed the status recently.
Phase Phase 2 Tests whether it works and watches safety in a moderate group.
Type Interventional (clinical trial)
Design open-label (no blinding) treatment study
Participants 10 people Planned (estimated).
Who can join Ages 5+ · all sexes
Timeline Started 2024-01 · est. completion 2024-12
Where 1 site · Italy

What this study is testing ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05659368 ↗

Description as written by the study sponsor.

Wolfram syndrome (WFS:OMIM 222300) is a group of inherited disorders that usually appear in childhood and cause diabetes, optic atrophy leading to loss of vision, deafness and often diabetes insipidus. Wolfram syndrome affected no more than 0.2 in 10,000 people in the European Union. There is no cure and no treatment that will arrest or delay the progress of the disease. The gene responsible for WS1 is WFS1, it encodes for wolframin, a transmembrane glycoprotein involved in the regulation of the unfolded protein response. Recently, drug repurposing has been hypothesized from others and us as being useful for WS1 therapy. More specifically, GLP-1 receptor agonists were suggested as a promising class of anti- diabetic drugs having the potential to delay or even reverse disease progression based on their ability to reduce elevated ER stress in vitro and in vivo. The objective of this project is to create a model of precision-medicine oriented Rare Diabetes Clinic, which will be specifically dedicated to the treatment and follow-up of complex patients with Wolfram Syndrome. A team of clinicians and researchers specialized in diabetes and/or optic neuropathy and with experience in the subset of monogenic forms will make available a cohort of subjects with Wolfram Syndrome prospectively followed in an interventional protocol on the use of tirzepatide (a dual glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist). It will be a prospective phase 2, non-randomized, single group assignment, intervention trial to determine the efficacy of tirzepatide (GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist) in increasing endogenous insulin production and correcting glycemic lability in patients with Wolfram syndrome type 1 (WS1). The expected outcomes of this study are 1) to provide a therapeutic option for a devastating orphan disease; 2) to confirm the efficacy of a repurposed drug able to reduce elevated endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in a disease that represents a model of ER disease; 3) to confirm the efficacy of the disease modeling based on iPSC to predict the response to treatment; 4) to develop a disease-specific multidisciplinary follow-up.

Treatments tested

Main thing measuredchanging in endogenous insulin production
SponsorOspedale San Raffaele
Conditions studiedWolfram Syndrome
GLP-1 drugs tirzepatide

Full protocol, eligibility, and contacts on ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05659368 ↗