Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Sep 28:11:1254231.
doi: 10.3389/fped.2023.1254231. eCollection 2023.

Long acting growth hormone (LAGH), an update

Margaret Steiner Grillo  1 , Jacklyn Frank  1 , Paul Saenger  1
Affiliations
Review

Long acting growth hormone (LAGH), an update

Margaret Steiner Grillo et al. Front Pediatr. .

Abstract

In 1957, Maurice Raben at Yale was able to isolate and purify growth hormone from cadaveric pituitary glands. Pituitary growth hormone was the only way to treat children with growth hormone (GH) deficiency, until 1985 when recombinant GH became available for daily subcutaneous injection. For many years, the pediatric endocrine community longed for a long-acting recombinant GH formulation that would decrease the inconvenience of daily injections. Several mechanisms were employed to develop a GH that is rapidly absorbed into the blood stream after subcutaneous injection, but provides slow removal from the circulatory system to potentially optimize patient adherence to GH therapy. Four long-acting growth hormones are currently available in the world, or are close to regulatory approval. They are: (1) Pegylated formulations, (2) Prodrug formulations which are converted into active drug, (3) Nonvalent transient albumin binding GH compounds and (4) GH fusion proteins where a protein si fused with GH. All four formulations have undergone detailed phase 3 studies and were found to show non-inferiority in these clinical studies. All four demonstrate a safety and tolerability profile that is comparable to that of daily somatropin with an excellent adherence profile.

Keywords: fusion proteins; growth hormone; growth hormone deficiency; long acting growth hormone; pegylation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Annualized height velocity of lonapegsomatropin compared to daily Somatropin. Personal communication from Ascendis Pharma, and reference (13).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Switching to weekly lonapegsomatropin from daily somatropin in children with growth hormone deficiency (15). Permission has been obtained to duplicate.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Weekly somapacitan is effective and well tolerated in children with GH deficiency (19). Permission has been obtained to duplicate.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Raben MS. Preparation of growth hormone from pituitaries of man and monkey. Science. (1957) 125:883–4. 10.1126/science.125.3253.883 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Raben MS. Treatment of a pituitary dwarf with human growth hormone. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. (1958) 18:901–3. 10.1210/jcem-18-8-901 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mejia-Corletto J, Saenger PH. Long-acting growth hormone: an update. In: Cappa M, Cianferani S, Ghizzoni L, Lockhe S, Maghnie M, editors. Advanced therapies in pediatric endocrinology and diabetology. Vol. 30. Endocrin Dev, Basel Karger; (2016). p. 79–97. - PubMed
    1. Fradkin JE, Schonberger LB, Mills JL, Gunn WJ, Piper JM, Wysowski DK, et al. Creutzfeldt-Jakob in pituitary growth hormone recipients in the United States. JAMA. (1991) 265:880–4. 10.1001/jama.1991.03460070062043 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Goldenberg N, Barkan A. Factors regulating growth hormone secretion in humans. Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am. (2007) 36(1):37–55. 10.1016/j.ecl.2006.11.003 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources