Intraperitoneal delivery of a novel drug-like compound improves disease severity in severe and intermediate mouse models of Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

ABSTRACT: Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disorder that causes progressive muscle weakness and is the leading genetic cause of infant mortality worldwide. SMA is caused by the loss of survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1). In humans, a nearly identical copy gene is present, called SMN2. Although SMN2 maintains the same coding sequence, this gene cannot compensate for the loss of SMN1 because of a single silent nucleotide difference in SMN2 exon 7. SMN2 primarily produces an alternatively spliced isoform lacking exon 7, which is critical for protein function. SMN2 is an important disease modifier that makes for an excellent target for therapeutic intervention because all SMA patients retain SMN2. Therefore, compounds and small molecules that can increase SMN2 exon 7

SUBMITTER: Osman EY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6367425 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature