Mending Muscles

Characterised by progressive muscle weakening, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a crippling condition caused by mutations in the gene for dystrophin, a key structural protein in muscle. Yet fixing this problem may be possible, as recent work with beagle puppies provides pioneering evidence that gene editing techniques can rescue dystrophin in large mammals. Shown here, in green, in healthy diaphragm muscle (right-hand panel), dystrophin is virtually absent in a puppy with DMD (centre), and is visibly restored by intravenous injections of the CRISPR-Cas9 treatment, designed to correct the dystrophin gene (left). Although dystrophin levels varied between muscle types, in the dog receiving the highest treatment dose, all muscles except the tongue showed much greater than 15% recovery, a level at which patients would be expected to feel reduced symptoms. While still a long way from human trials, these encouraging results raise hopes of eventually reversing dystrophy in DMD patients.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

Emmanuelle Briolat

Writer

A researcher specialising in visual signals in Lepidoptera, camouflage and the effects of light pollution, Emmanuelle’s writing covers a range of topics, from biomedical research to children’s books about moth defences.

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• Images from work by Leonela Amoasii and colleagues, UT Southwestern
• The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Research published in Science, August 2018