R(+) Pramipexole in Early Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

The hypothesis of this study is that treatment with R(+) pramipexole at 30 mg/day will alter the slope of decline in ALS functional rating scale over the course of 6 months. ALS patients at an early stage of disease will be observed for 3 months after enrollment and then treated with drug for 6 months.

This is a futility design Phase II study using ALS-FRSr as the primary variable to monitor progression of disease in patients with early ALS. The drug to be tested is R(+) pramipexole, an antioxidant that concentrates into brain and mitochondria. R(+)PPX will be administered at 30 mg/day over 6 months, following a 3 month lead-in period without drug therapy. For purposes of this study, futility is defined as failure to decrease the slope of ALS-FRSr decline by less than 40%.