( ffects one in 3500 male births accord...)Experimental cancer drugs counter muscle deterioration seen in muscular dystrophy

"We have identified a new rationale for treating muscular dystrophy, aimed at correcting the devastating effects of a single flawed gene," said Puri. "This is a significant advance over the use of steroids--currently the only treatment available--which offers palliative relief, often with severe side effects."

"These exciting results, while encouraging, will require extensive investigation to determine whether the effectiveness of these drugs in dystrophic mice will translate into an effective treatment for individuals suffering this disease," cautions Puri, who has devoted over 10 years to the study of muscular dystrophy. "It is difficult to predict how long it will take before these studies will be translated into therapies for human patients."

"Our future studies will focus on understanding precisely how several existing deacetylase inhibitors effect muscle regeneration. We will use this information to identify new compounds with similar or even better efficacy in treating muscular dystrophies."

Puri's research on the effects of deacetylase inhibitors on muscle regeneration was inspired by his previous studies, which started 10 years ago, in collaboration with Dr. Vittorio Sartorelli at NIH, on the biochemical and molecular mechanism regulating the expression of genes that coordinate muscle regeneration. These studies led to the identification of different enzymes (called acetyltransferases and deacetylases) that promote or inhibit the expression of regeneration genes, and have the potential of influencing the efficiency of muscle regeneration.
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Source:Burnham Institute