Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Author(s):  
Abhijit Pandurang Bhoyar

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle degeneration and weakness due to the alterations of a protein called dystrophin that helps keep muscle cells intact. DMD is one of four conditions known as dystrophinopathies. DMD symptom onset is in early childhood, usually between ages 2 and 3. The daughters each have a 50% chance of being carriers. Very rarely, a female can be affected by the disease. Duchenne muscular dystrophy occurs in about 1 out of every 3600 male infants. The disease primarily affects boys, but in rare cases it can affect girls. Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a form of muscular dystrophy. The main sign of muscular dystrophy is progressive muscle weakness. Specific signs and symptoms begin at different ages and in different muscle groups. No cure for DMD is known, and an ongoing medical need has been recognized by regulatory authorities. Gene therapy has shown some success. Complications includes osteoporosis, nutritional problems, cardiac complication such as cardiomyopathy, chest and breathing complication. This condition can be improved when detected as early as possible.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole M. Ralbovsky ◽  
Paromita Dey ◽  
Andrew Galfano ◽  
Bijan K. Dey ◽  
Igor K. Lednev

AbstractDuchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is the most common and severe form of muscular dystrophy and affects boys in infancy or early childhood. DMD is known to trigger progressive muscle weakness due to skeletal muscle degeneration and ultimately causes death. There are limited treatment regimens available that can either slow or stop the progression of DMD. An accurate and specific method for diagnosing DMD in its earliest stages is needed to prevent progressive muscle degeneration and death. Current methods for diagnosing DMD are often laborious, expensive, invasive, and typically diagnose the disease later on it is progression. In an effort to improve the accuracy and ease of diagnosis, this study focused on developing a novel method for diagnosing DMD which combines Raman hyperspectroscopic analysis of blood serum with advanced statistical analysis. Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA), was applied to the spectral dataset acquired from control and mdx blood serum of 3- and 12-month old mice to build a diagnostic algorithm. Internal cross-validation showed 95.2% sensitivity and 94.6% specificity for identifying diseased spectra. These results were verified using external validation, which achieved 100% successful classification efficiency at the level of individual donor. This proof-of-concept study presents Raman hyperspectroscopic analysis of blood serum as a fast, non-expensive, minimally invasive and early detection method for the diagnosis of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.


Author(s):  
Alan E. H. Emery ◽  
Marcia L. H. Emery

Chapter 1 discusses the history of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a serious condition and the second most common genetic disorder in many countries. Its cause was unknown until relatively recently and there has been no effective treatment. However, the responsible gene and its protein product have now been identified and gene therapy is under serious consideration.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuko Shimizu-Motohashi ◽  
Hirofumi Komaki ◽  
Norio Motohashi ◽  
Shin’ichi Takeda ◽  
Toshifumi Yokota ◽  
...  

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a rare genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscle weakness, is caused by the absence or a decreased amount of the muscle cytoskeletal protein dystrophin. Currently, several therapeutic approaches to cure DMD are being investigated, which can be categorized into two groups: therapies that aim to restore dystrophin expression, and those that aim to compensate for the lack of dystrophin. Therapies that restore dystrophin expression include read-through therapy, exon skipping, vector-mediated gene therapy, and cell therapy. Of these approaches, the most advanced are the read-through and exon skipping therapies. In 2014, ataluren, a drug that can promote ribosomal read-through of mRNA containing a premature stop codon, was conditionally approved in Europe. In 2016, eteplirsen, a morpholino-based chemical capable of skipping exon 51 in premature mRNA, received conditional approval in the USA. Clinical trials on vector-mediated gene therapy carrying micro- and mini- dystrophin are underway. More innovative therapeutic approaches include CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing and stem cell-based cell therapies. Here we review the current status of therapeutic approaches for DMD, focusing on therapeutic approaches that can restore dystrophin.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 415-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginie Mariot ◽  
Caroline Le Guiner ◽  
Inès Barthélémy ◽  
Marie Montus ◽  
Stéphane Blot ◽  
...  

1970 ◽  
pp. 36-39
Author(s):  
M Robed Amin ◽  
Chowdhury Chironjib Borua ◽  
Kaji Shafiqul Alam ◽  
Fazle Rabbi Chowdhury ◽  
Rabiul Jahan Sarkar ◽  
...  

Progressive muscular weakness with deformity leading to crippled states develop due to musculoskeletal and neurological disorders. Sometimes it is difficult to differentiate between primary muscle disease and neurological disease. But there is some classical presentation of muscle diseases which have its own entity and thus can be clinically differentiated from neurological disorder especially spinal cord and motor neuron diseases. Muscular dystrophy is one of those disorder with distinct clinical features. Muscular dystrophy refers to a group of genetic, hereditary muscle diseases that cause progressive muscle weakness. Most types of MD are multi-system disorders with manifestations in body systems including skeletal system, the heart, gastrointestinal and nervous systems, endocrine glands, skin, eyes and other organs. Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), is inherited in an X-linked recessive pattern, meaning that the mutated gene that causes the disorder is located on the X chromosome, one of the two sex chromosomes, and is thus considered sex-linked. Males are therefore affected by X-linked recessive disorders much more often than females. A characteristic of X-linked inheritance is that fathers cannot pass X-linked traits to their sons. Duchenne muscular dystrophy and Backers muscular dystrophy are caused by mutations of the gene for the dystrophin protein and lead to an overabundance of the enzyme creatine kinase. The dystrophin gene is the largest gene in humans. In this case series a family with three brothers suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy is described and review with literature was done.   doi:10.3329/jom.v10i3.2015 J Medicine 2009; 10 (Supplement 1): 36-39


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-183
Author(s):  
Akshay A Patankar ◽  
Renu B Rathi

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a neuromuscular disorder characterized by deficient dystrophin protein in the muscle. The main symptoms the patient presented were delay in expressive and receptive language development, visual discontent, hyperkinetic behaviour, and inability to initiate and maintain social contact with peers. The data obtained from the family, following clinical examination, laboratory investigation results and assessment of mental status were significant for the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder, hyperkinetic behaviour and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. In Ayurveda it has been classified under Medomamsa dusti further vitiates the Vata doshas occurs due to the Bheejabagahaavyava Dusti. In modern medicine there is no significant treatment available for this diseases while in Ayurvedic panchakrma therapy shows significant results in all signs and symptoms of this diseases.


2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (10) ◽  
pp. 791-797
Author(s):  
Isabela M. Martins ◽  
Lygia M.M. Malvestio ◽  
Jair R. Engracia-Filho ◽  
Gustavo S. Claudiano ◽  
Flávio R. Moraes ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT: The Golden Retriever muscular dystrophy (GRMD) is one of the best models of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), with similar genotypic and phenotypic manifestations. Progressive proliferation of connective tissue in the endomysium of the muscle fibers occurs in parallel with the clinical course of the disease in GRMD animals. Previous studies suggest a relationship between mast cells and the deposition of fibrous tissue due to the release of mediators that recruit fibroblasts. The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of mast cells and their relationship with muscle injury and fibrosis in GRMD dogs of different ages. Samples of muscle groups from six GRMD and four control dogs, aged 2 to 8 months, were collected and analyzed. The samples were processed and stained with HE, toluidine blue, and Azan trichrome. Our results showed that there was a significant increase in infiltration of mast cells in all muscle groups of GRMD dogs compared to the control group. The average number of mast cells, as well as the deposition of fibrous tissue, decreased with age in GRMD dogs. In the control group, all muscle types showed a significant increase in the amount of collagenous tissue. This suggests increased mast cell degranulation occurred in younger GRMD dogs, resulting in increased interstitial space and fibrous tissue in muscle, which then gradually decreased over time as the dogs aged. However, further studies are needed to clarify the role of mast cells in the pathogenesis of fibrosis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (30) ◽  
pp. 7741-7746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Filareto ◽  
Katie Maguire-Nguyen ◽  
Qiang Gan ◽  
Garazi Aldanondo ◽  
Léo Machado ◽  
...  

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a rare, muscle degenerative disease resulting from the absence of the dystrophin protein. DMD is characterized by progressive loss of muscle fibers, muscle weakness, and eventually loss of ambulation and premature death. Currently, there is no cure for DMD and improved methods of disease monitoring are crucial for the development of novel treatments. In this study, we describe a new method of assessing disease progression noninvasively in the mdx model of DMD. The reporter mice, which we term the dystrophic Degeneration Reporter strains, contain an inducible CRE-responsive luciferase reporter active in mature myofibers. In these mice, muscle degeneration is reflected in changes in the level of luciferase expression, which can be monitored using noninvasive, bioluminescence imaging. We monitored the natural history and disease progression in these dystrophic report mice and found that decreases in luciferase signals directly correlated with muscle degeneration. We further demonstrated that this reporter strain, as well as a previously reported Regeneration Reporter strain, successfully reveals the effectiveness of a gene therapy treatment following systemic administration of a recombinant adeno-associated virus-6 (rAAV-6) encoding a microdystrophin construct. Our data demonstrate the value of these noninvasive imaging modalities for monitoring disease progression and response to therapy in mouse models of muscular dystrophy.


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