Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO) & Cetirizine
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02865018. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Official title
An Open Label, add-on Trial of Cetirizine for Patients With Neuromyelitis Optica
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system. Patients have relapses (also known as attacks) which are often quite severe and leave them with significant disability. Without treatment, within 5 years 50% of NMO patients are blind in one or both eyes or require walking assistance (cane, walker or wheelchair). NMO has only been relatively recently described and is fairly rare. Most NMO patients' immune systems produce abnormal antibodies against aquaporin-4 (AQP4), which is found in certain cells in the central nervous system. When these AQP4 antibodies bind to AQP4, they trigger a cascade of events involving the immune system which eventually leads to damage to the nervous system. This ultimately leads to disability, some of which is permanent. Until now, treatments for NMO have been mostly focused on decreasing production of this AQP4 antibody. However, recent experiments in animal models of NMO have shown the importance of what happens inside the central nervous system after the antibody binds to the nervous system cell. Specifically, researchers have noted the importance of a specific cell type, eosinophils, in causing damage in NMO lesions. In a recent study, researchers showed they could prevent damage from NMO by blocking eosinophils using cetirizine, which is a popular over-the-counter allergy medicine. Cetirizine is already known to be safe and well-tolerated in the general population. In this study, the researchers plan to add cetirizine on to patients' current NMO treatment. The researchers aim to show that it is safe, well-tolerated, and that with cetirizine, NMO patients have less relapses and therefore less disability over the course of the year following initiation of treatment. The researchers also plan to study how cetirizine changes the immunological profile in NMO patients by examining blood and cerebrospinal fluid.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT02865018
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase 1, Phase 2
- Enrollment
- 16 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years to 85 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Mar 31, 2014
- Primary completion
- Jan 31, 2016
- Completion
- Jan 31, 2016
- Last update posted
- Jun 6, 2023
2014 – 2016
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | New York | New York | 10029 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT02865018, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Jun 6, 2023 · Synced Sep 11, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT02865018 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.