A Study of Zoledronic Acid, Pravastatin, and Lonafarnib for Patients With Progeria

Progerias are rare "premature aging" diseases in which children die of severe atherosclerosis leading to strokes and heart attacks. It is a multisystem disease with objective clinical markers for disease progression. These include abnormalities in growth and body composition, bone mineral density, join function, endocrine function, alopecia, and vascular disease. There is currently no therapy proven effective for any of the progressive and deleterious aspects of this disorder. Progeria is caused by a gene defect in the gene LMNA, coding for the nuclear protein lamin A. Lamin A is normally expressed by most differentiated cells, and requires posttranslational farnesylation to incorporate into the nuclear membrane. This trial proposes to use three agents (zoledronic acid, pravastatin, and lonafarnib) to inhibit farnesylation of abnormal lamin, the disease causing protein in Progeria. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of administering intravenous zoledronic acid, oral pravastatin and oral lonafarnib, to patients wtih Progeria for a minimum of 4 weeks.