Medical research

New treatment for muscular dystrophy wins US regulatory approval

Research led by Professor Steve Wilton and Professor Sue Fletcher and licensed to Sarepta Therapeutics has delivered a second treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, with the drug gaining accelerated approval by the U.S. ...

Medical research

CRISPR halts Duchenne muscular dystrophy progression in dogs

Scientists for the first time have used CRISPR gene editing to halt the progression of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in a large mammal, according to a study by UT Southwestern that provides a strong indication that a ...

Medical research

A golden ticket to faster muscle recovery

Anyone who has ever torn or injured a muscle knows that swelling, redness, and pain soon follow the injury: classic signs of inflammation. Inflammation is the body's natural response to promote healing, but prolonged, excess ...

Genetics

CRISPR treats genetic disorder in adult mammal

Researchers have used CRISPR to treat an adult mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. This marks the first time that CRISPR has successfully treated a genetic disease inside a fully developed living mammal with a strategy ...

Medications

New hope for antibody to treat muscular dystrophy

Northwestern Medicine scientists have developed an antibody that they believe can be used to treat muscular dystrophy, findings that were published in Science Translational Medicine.

Genetics

Inactive genes surprisingly common in humans

(Medical Xpress) -- Every person carries on average 100 variants that disable genes - yet very few suffer ill effects, an international team of researchers led by Yale University and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute report ...

Genetics

Toxic protein linked to muscular dystrophy and arhinia

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health and their colleagues have found that a toxic protein made by the body called DUX4 may be the cause of two very different rare genetic disorders. For patients who have facioscapulohumeral ...

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Muscular dystrophy (MD) is a group of muscle diseases that weaken the musculoskeletal system and hamper locomotion. Muscular dystrophies are characterized by progressive skeletal muscle weakness, defects in muscle proteins, and the death of muscle cells and tissue.

In the 1860s, descriptions of boys who grew progressively weaker, lost the ability to walk, and died at an early age became more prominent in medical journals. In the following decade, French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne gave a comprehensive account of thirteen boys with the most common and severe form of the disease, which now carries his name—Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

It soon became evident that the disease had more than one form. The other major forms are Becker, limb-girdle, congenital, facioscapulohumeral, myotonic, oculopharyngeal, distal, and Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy. These diseases predominately affect males, although females may be carriers of the disease gene. Most types of MD are multi-system disorders with manifestations in body systems including the heart, gastrointestinal system, nervous system, endocrine glands, eyes and brain.

Apart from the nine major types of muscular dystrophy listed above, several MD-like conditions have also been identified. Normal intellectual, behavioral, bowel and sexual function is noticed in individuals with other forms of MD and MD-like conditions. MD-affected individuals with susceptible intellectual impairment are diagnosed through molecular characteristics but not through problems associated with disability. However, a third of patients who are severely affected with DMD may have cognitive impairment, behavioral, vision and speech problems.

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