Journal List > Ann Clin Neurophysiol > v.19(1) > 1099500

Lee, Shin, Park, and Kim: Mitochondrial myopathies caused by prolonged use of telbivudine

초록

Background

Telbivudine is a nucleoside analogue used for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B, but it often develops mitochondrial toxicity leading to symptomatic myopathy. In this study, three patients with telbivudine induced myopathy were enrolled in order to in-vestigate the nature and pathogenesis of mitochondrial toxicity caused by long-term use of telbivudine.

Methods

Clinical features, laboratory findings, muscle pathology, and quantitation of mitochondrial DNA were studied in three patients.

Results

Patients presented with progressive muscle weakness with high serum creatine kinase levels. Light microscopic findings of muscle pathology showed ragged red fibers that reacted strongly with succinate dehydrogenase stain, but negative for cytochrome c oxidase activities. Electron microscopy revealed abnormal mitochondrial accumulation with rod shaped inclusions. The quantitative peroxidase chain reaction showed a depletion of mitochondrial DNA in skeletal muscle of the patients.

Conclusions

Nucleoside analogues including telbivudine are potent inhibitors of viral DNA polymerases. However, they are not specific for viral DNA and can disturb mitochondrial repli-cation at the same time. All nucleotide analogues should be used with close clinical observation in order to avoid development of mitochondrial myopathy.

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Fig. 1.
Light microscopic findings of patient 1 (A-D), 2 (E-H), and 3 (I-L). In patient 1, single ragged red fiber (asterisk) is observed in serial sections, which is deficient for cytochrome oxidase activity (C) and strongly reactive to succinate dehydrogenase stain (D). In addition, some necrotic and regenerating fibers are observed (A, B). In patient 2, only a few regenerating fibers are observed (E) without evident ragged red fiber (F, H). However, COX negative fibers are abundant (G, black dots). In patient 3, necrotic and regenerating fibers are scattered (I), and a few ragged red fibers (J, arrowhead) with in-creased succinate dehydrogenase activity (L, white dots) are observed. Many muscle fibers are deficient for cytochrome oxidase activities (K, black dots) (A, E, I: hematoxyline and eosin stain, B, F, J: modified Gomori-trichrome stain, C, G, K: cytochrome oxidase stain, D, H, L: succinate dehydrogenase stain. An 100 μm scale bar was used).
acn-19-40f1.tif
Fig. 2.
Electron microscopic findings of patient 1 (A, B), 2 (C, D), and 3 (E, F) (scale bar, 2 μm). The rod shaped inclusions are observed within mitochondria (arrows, A). The double-membrane vesicle (long arrowheads) encircling abnormal mitochondria is observed, which indicates the autophagic vesi-cles (B). Abnormal accumulation of mitochondria is observed in degenerated fibers and between myofibrils (C-E). Mitochondria in degenerated fiber is enlarged and abnormally shaped (black short arrowheads, F).
acn-19-40f2.tif
Fig. 3.
Quantitative PCR analysis showed mtDNA/nuclear DNA ratio was markedly reduced in comparison to the normal control (12.4% of normal control in patient 1, 18.3% in patient 2, and 3.5% in patient 3). PCR, peroxidase chain reaction; mtDNA, mitochondrial DNA.
acn-19-40f3.tif
Table 1.
Clinical data of 3 patients
Patient 1 Patient 2 Patient 3
Age (years) 48 51 52
Gender F F F
Initial HBV statue at the start of telbivudine
HBeAg Positive Unknown Negative
HBV DNA (copies/mL) 7,672 Unknown 70,928
AST/ALT (U/L) 104/42 Unknown 117/53
Daily telbivudine dose (mg) 600 600 600
Duration of telbivudine therapy before symptom onset (months) 34 24 22
Interval between symptom onset and evaluation (months) 4 6 16
Distribution and grade of weakness
Arm proximal/distal 5/5 4-/5- 4+/5
Leg proximal/distal 3/5- 2/5- 4/5
Laboratory tests (at the time of evaluation of myopathy)
Serum CK (U/L) (normal; 0-145) 8,882 1,547 193
AST/ALT (U/L) (normal; 0-35) 68/192 99/20 43/35
Treatment Changed to tenofovir (300 mg daily) Stopped Changed to tenofovir (300 mg daily)
Serum CK after 2 months of drug discontinuation (U/L) 307 250 98
Electromyography Active myopathic change Active myopathic change Active myopathic change

F, female; HBV, hepatitis B virus; HBeAg, hepatitis B e antigen; AST/ALT, aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase; CK, creatine kinase.

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