Pharmacological advances for treatment in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a lethal, X-linked muscle-wasting disease caused by lack of dystrophin, essential for muscle fibre integrity. Despite extensive pre-clinical studies, development of an effective treatment has proved challenging. More recently, significant progress has been made with the first drug approval using a genetic approach and the application of pharmacological agents which slow the progression of the disease.

Identification of serum protein biomarkers for utrophin based DMD therapy.

Despite promising therapeutic avenues, there is currently no effective treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a lethal monogenic disorder caused by the loss of the large cytoskeletal protein, dystrophin. A highly promising approach to therapy, applicable to all DMD patients irrespective to their genetic defect, is to modulate utrophin, a functional paralogue of dystrophin, able to compensate for the primary defects of DMD restoring sarcolemmal stability. One of the major difficulties in assessing the effectiveness of therapeutic strategies is to define appropriate outcome measures.

Advances in genetic therapeutic strategies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

What is the topic of this review? This review highlights recent progress in genetically based therapies targeting the primary defect of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. What advances does it highlight? Over the last two decades, considerable progress has been made in understanding the mechanisms underlying Duchenne muscular dystrophy, leading to the development of genetic therapies. These include manipulation of the expression of the gene or related genes, the splicing of the gene and its translation, and replacement of the gene using viral approaches.