Effects of acute nutritional ketosis during exercise in adults with glycogen storage disease type IIIa are phenotype‐specific: An investigator‐initiated, randomized, crossover study

Glycogen storage disease type IIIa (GSDIIIa) is an inborn error of carbohydrate metabolism caused by a debranching enzyme deficiency. A subgroup of GSDIIIa patients develops severe myopathy. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether acute nutritional ketosis (ANK) in response to ketone‐ester (KE) ingestion is effective to deliver oxidative substrate to exercising muscle in GSDIIIa patients. This was an investigator‐initiated, researcher‐blinded, randomized, crossover study in six adult GSDIIIa patients. Prior to exercise subjects ingested a carbohydrate drink (~66 g, CHO) or a ketone‐ester (395 mg/kg, KE) + carbohydrate drink (30 g, KE + CHO). Subjects performed 15‐minute cycling exercise on an upright ergometer followed by 10‐minute supine cycling in a magnetic resonance (MR) scanner at two submaximal workloads (30% and 60% of individual maximum, respectively). Blood metabolites, indirect calorimetry data, and in vivo (31)P‐MR spectra from quadriceps muscle were collected during exercise. KE + CHO induced ANK in all six subjects with median peak βHB concentration of 2.6 mmol/L (range: 1.6‐3.1). Subjects remained normoglycemic in both study arms, but delta glucose concentration was 2‐fold lower in the KE + CHO arm. The respiratory exchange ratio did not increase in the KE + CHO arm when workload was doubled in subjects with overt myopathy. In vivo (31)P MR spectra showed a favorable change in quadriceps energetic state during exercise in the KE + CHO arm compared to CHO in subjects with overt myopathy. Effects of ANK during exercise are phenotype‐specific in adult GSDIIIa patients. ANK presents a promising therapy in GSDIIIa patients with a severe myopathic phenotype. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03011203.