Blog Archives

  In preparation for clinical trials in myotonic dystrophy type-1 (DM1), it is important to develop and identify patient-reported outcome measures with good measurement properties. This paper describes 52 DM1 patients enrolled in two clinical studies who completed the Myotonic Dystrophy Health Index (MDHI), SF-36v2, Individualized Neuromuscular Quality of Life questionnaire (NQoL), and a questionnaire … [Read more]

  Many people in the world are affected by muscle wasting, especially the population hits by myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1). Those people are usually given a program of multiple physical exercises to do. While DM1 and many other people have difficulties attending commercial centres to realize their program, a solution is to develop such … [Read more]

More than 450 participants attended the first International Scientific Congress on Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Spinal muscular atrophy is a pathology in which research is progressing, trials are increasing, and the first treatment is accessible to patients according to regulatory modalities that differ from one country to another (post-MA in France). It is in this context … [Read more]

Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is a multisystemic disorder with neuromuscular symptoms and brain dysfunctions. Depending on the phenotypic expression, the degree of cognitive impairment remains heterogeneous, ranging from moderate to severe intellectual disability in the congenital form, to executive, visuospatial and personality dysfunction in the adult-onset form. Studies exploring the cognitive or psychiatric impairments … [Read more]

  Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy type 2D (LGMD2D) is a rare autosomal-recessive disease, affecting striated muscle, due to mutation of SGCA, the gene coding for α-sarcoglycan. Nowadays more than 50 different SGCA missense mutations have been reported. They are supposed to impact folding and trafficking of α-sarcoglycan because the defective polypeptide, although potentially functional, is … [Read more]

  Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD)  is primarily caused by whole exon deletions, resulting in a shift of the dystrophin mRNA reading frame that prevents production of functional dystrophin protein. Eteplirsen, a phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomer (PMO), is designed to skip exon 51, restore the reading frame, and induce production of internally shortened dystrophin in patients with … [Read more]

  Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a severe neuromuscular disorder due to a defect in the survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene. Its incidence is approximately 1 in 11,000 live births. In 2007, an International Conference on the Standard of Care for SMA published a consensus statement on SMA standard of care that has been … [Read more]

  Mitochondrial neurogastrointestinal encephalomyopathy (MNGIE) is caused by mutations in TYMP, the gene encoding the enzyme thymidine phosphorylase (TP). TP dysfunction results in systemic accumulation of the noxious TP substrates thymidine and deoxyuridine. Gene therapy using either a lentiviral vector or adeno-associated vector (AAV) has proven to be a feasible strategy, as both vectors restore … [Read more]

  In humans, a copy of the DUX4 retrogene is located in each unit of the D4Z4 macrosatellite repeat that normally comprises 8-100 units. The D4Z4 repeat has heterochromatic features and does not express DUX4 in somatic cells. Individuals with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) have a partial failure of somatic DUX4 repression resulting in the … [Read more]