For three decades, enzyme replacement therapy (ERT), and more recently, substrate reduction therapy, have been the standard-of-care for type I Gaucher disease (GD1). Since 2012, three different ERTs have been available. No clinical trial or academic study has ever compared these ERTs beyond one year. Herein we compare the impact of the ERTs on repeated measurements of glucosylsphingosine (lyso-Gb1; the most sensitive and GD-specific biomarker). A total of 135 adult patients (77 (57%) female) with GD1, followed from July 2014 to March 2020 and treated with a single ERT (imiglucerase (n = 41, 30.4%), taliglucerase alfa (n = 21, 15.6%) and velaglucerase alfa (n = 73, 54.1%)), were included. Disease severity was defined by genotypes (mild: N370S (c.1226A>G) homozygous and N370S/R496H (c.1604G) compound heterozygous; severe: all other genotypes) and by the severity score index (SSI; mild: <7; severe: ≥7). Lyso-Gb1 testing was performed at Centogene™ on dry blood spot samples collected during routine visits. Patients treated with imiglucerase had higher lyso-Gb1 levels at different time points. A huge variation in lyso-Gb1 levels was noticeable both inter-individually and intra-individually for all three ERTs. A steeper and faster decrease of lyso-Gb1 levels was shown in velaglucerase alfa. Nevertheless, the differences between medications were not very large, and bigger numbers and more pretreatment data are required for more powerful conclusions.
Keywords: Gaucher disease; biomarkers; enzyme replacement therapy; glucosylsphingosine; lyso-Gb1.