Inherited neuromuscular disorders: pathway to diagnosis

Plasmid Gene Therapy for Monogenic Disorders: Challenges and Perspectives

Monogenic disorders are a group of human diseases caused by mutations in single genes. While some disease-altering treatments offer relief and slow the progression of certain conditions, the majority of monogenic disorders still lack effective therapies. In recent years, gene therapy has appeared as a promising approach for addressing genetic disorders. However, despite advancements in gene manipulation tools and delivery systems, several challenges remain unresolved, including inefficient delivery, lack of sustained expression, immunogenicity, toxicity, capacity limitations, genomic integration risks, and limited tissue specificity. This review provides an overview of the plasmid-based gene therapy techniques and delivery methods currently employed for monogenic diseases, highlighting the challenges they face and exploring potential strategies to overcome these barriers.

Neurotransmitters Regulation and Food Intake: The Role of Dietary Sources in Neurotransmission

Neurotransmitters (NTs) are biologically active chemicals, which mediate the electrochemical transmission between neurons. NTs control numerous organic functions particularly crucial for life, including movement, emotional responses, and the physical ability to feel pleasure and pain. These molecules are synthesized from simple, very common precursors. Many types of NTs have both excitatory and inhibitory effects. Neurotransmitters' imbalance can cause many diseases and disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, depression, insomnia, increased anxiety, memory loss, etc. Natural food sources containing NTs and/or their precursors would be a potential option to help maintain the balance of NTs to prevent brain and psychiatric disorders. The level of NTs could be influenced, therefore, by targeting dietary habits and nutritional regimens. The progressive implementation of nutritional approaches in clinical practice has made it necessary to infer more about some of the nutritional NTs in neuropsychiatry. However, the importance of the intake of nutritional NTs requires further understanding, since there are no prior significant studies about their bioavailability, clinical significance, and effects on nerve cells. Interventional strategies supported by evidence should be encouraged.

Transcriptome-based variant calling and aberrant mRNA discovery enhance diagnostic efficiency for neuromuscular diseases

BACKGROUND

Whole-exome sequencing-based diagnosis of rare diseases typically yields 40%-50% of success rate. Precise diagnosis of the patients with neuromuscular disorders (NMDs) has been hampered by locus heterogeneity or phenotypic heterogeneity. We evaluated the utility of transcriptome sequencing as an independent approach in diagnosing NMDs.

METHODS

The RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) of muscle tissues from 117 Korean patients with suspected Mendelian NMD was performed to evaluate the ability to detect pathogenic variants. Aberrant splicing and CNVs were inspected to identify additional causal genetic factors for NMD. Aberrant splicing events in Dystrophin (DMD) were investigated by using antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs). A non-negative matrix factorisation analysis of the transcriptome data followed by cell type deconvolution was performed to cluster samples by expression-based signatures and identify cluster-specific gene ontologies.

RESULTS

Our pipeline called 38.1% of pathogenic variants exclusively from the muscle transcriptomes, demonstrating a higher diagnostic rate than that achieved via exome analysis (34.9%). The discovery of variants causing aberrant splicing allowed the application of ASOs to the patient-derived cells, providing a therapeutic approach tailored to individual patients. RNA-Seq data further enabled sample clustering by distinct gene expression profiles that corresponded to clinical parameters, conferring additional advantages over exome sequencing.

CONCLUSION

The RNA-Seq-based diagnosis of NMDs achieves an increased diagnostic rate and provided pathogenic status information, which is not easily accessible through exome analysis.

Myostatin: Basic biology to clinical application

Myostatin is a member of the transforming growth factor (TGF)-β superfamily. It is expressed by animal and human skeletal muscle cells where it limits muscle growth and promotes protein breakdown. Its effects are influenced by complex mechanisms including transcriptional and epigenetic regulation and modulation by extracellular binding proteins. Due to its actions in promoting muscle atrophy and cachexia, myostatin has been investigated as a promising therapeutic target to counteract muscle mass loss in experimental models and patients affected by different muscle-wasting conditions. Moreover, growing evidence indicates that myostatin, beyond to regulate skeletal muscle growth, may have a role in many physiologic and pathologic processes, such as obesity, insulin resistance, cardiovascular and chronic kidney disease. In this chapter, we review myostatin biology, including intracellular and extracellular regulatory pathways, and the role of myostatin in modulating physiologic processes, such as muscle growth and aging. Moreover, we discuss the most relevant experimental and clinical evidence supporting the extra-muscle effects of myostatin. Finally, we consider the main strategies developed and tested to inhibit myostatin in clinical trials and discuss the limits and future perspectives of the research on myostatin.

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: recent advances in protein biomarkers and the clinical application

INTRODUCTION

Early biomarker discovery studies have praised the value of their emerging results, predicting an unprecedented impact on health care. Biomarkers are expected to provide tests with increased specificity and sensitivity compared to existing measures, improve the decision-making process, and accelerate the development of therapies. For rare disorders, like Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) such biomarkers can assist the development of therapies, therefore also helping to find a cure for the disease.

AREA COVERED

State-of-the-art technologies have been used to identify blood biomarkers for DMD and efforts have been coordinated to develop and promote translation of biomarkers for clinical practice. Biomarker translation to clinical practice is however, adjoined by challenges related to the complexity of the disease, involving numerous biological processes, and the limited sample resources. This review highlights the current progress on the development of biomarkers, describing the proteomics technologies used, the most promising findings and the challenges encountered.

EXPERT OPINION

Strategies for effective use of samples combined with orthogonal proteomics methods for protein quantification are essential for translating biomarkers to the patient's bed side. Progress is achieved only if strong evidence is provided that the biomarker constitutes a reliable indicator of the patient's health status for a specific context of use.

Targeted Re-Sequencing Emulsion PCR Panel for Myopathies: Results in 94 Cases

BACKGROUND

Molecular diagnostics in the genetic myopathies often requires testing of the largest and most complex transcript units in the human genome (DMD, TTN, NEB). Iteratively targeting single genes for sequencing has traditionally entailed high costs and long turnaround times. Exome sequencing has begun to supplant single targeted genes, but there are concerns regarding coverage and needed depth of the very large and complex genes that frequently cause myopathies.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate efficiency of next-generation sequencing technologies to provide molecular diagnostics for patients with previously undiagnosed myopathies.

METHODS

We tested a targeted re-sequencing approach, using a 45 gene emulsion PCR myopathy panel, with subsequent sequencing on the Illumina platform in 94 undiagnosed patients. We compared the targeted re-sequencing approach to exome sequencing for 10 of these patients studied.

RESULTS

We detected likely pathogenic mutations in 33 out of 94 patients with a molecular diagnostic rate of approximately 35%. The remaining patients showed variants of unknown significance (35/94 patients) or no mutations detected in the 45 genes tested (26/94 patients). Mutation detection rates for targeted re-sequencing vs. whole exome were similar in both methods; however exome sequencing showed better distribution of reads and fewer exon dropouts.

CONCLUSIONS

Given that costs of highly parallel re-sequencing and whole exome sequencing are similar, and that exome sequencing now takes considerably less laboratory processing time than targeted re-sequencing, we recommend exome sequencing as the standard approach for molecular diagnostics of myopathies.

Twelve tips for teaching child development and disability to medical students

Child development is a marker of well-being in childhood and recognition of developmental delay allows timely investigation and intervention for children with developmental disabilities. Despite this, child development and disabilities are not given emphasis in the medical curriculum. This under representation of teaching combined with the stigma associated with disabilities contributes to the sub-optimal health care of people with disabilities. As well as, addressing the stigma of disability a medical undergraduate curriculum should include: the key concepts of child development; the clinical presentation of the most common developmental disabilities; developmental history taking and the infant neurodevelopmental examination. The following twelve tips provide practical advice about how to teach this knowledge and these skills during medical training.

Irisin treatment improves healing of dystrophic skeletal muscle

Background

Irisin is an exercise induced myokine that is shown to promote browning of adipose tissue and hence, increase energy expenditure. Furthermore, our unpublished results indicate that Irisin improves myogenic differentiation and induces skeletal muscle hypertrophy. Since exercise induced skeletal muscle hypertrophy improves muscle strength, we wanted to investigate if ectopic injection of Irisin peptide improves skeletal muscle function in a mouse model of muscular dystrophy. This utility of Irisin peptide is yet to be studied in animal models.

Methods

In order to test this hypothesis, we expressed and purified recombinant murine Irisin peptide from E. coli. Three- to six-week-old male mdx mice were injected IP with either vehicle (dialysis buffer) or Irisin recombinant peptide for two or four weeks, three times-a-week.

Results

Irisin injection increased muscle weights and enhanced grip strength in mdx mice. Improved muscle strength can be attributed to the significant hypertrophy observed in the Irisin injected mdx mice. Moreover, Irisin treatment resulted in reduced accumulation of fibrotic tissue and myofiber necrosis in mdx mice. In addition, Irisin improved sarcolemmal stability, which is severely compromised in mdx mice.

Conclusion

Irisin injection induced skeletal muscle hypertrophy, improved muscle strength and reduced necrosis and fibrotic tissue in a murine dystrophy model. These results demonstrate the potential therapeutic value of Irisin in muscular dystrophy.

Delayed diagnosis of congenital myasthenia due to associated mitochondrial enzyme defect

Clinical phenotypes of congenital myasthenic syndromes and primary mitochondrial disorders share significant overlap in their clinical presentations, leading to challenges in making the correct diagnosis. Next generation sequencing is transforming molecular diagnosis of inherited neuromuscular disorders by identifying novel disease genes and by identifying previously known genes in undiagnosed patients. This is evident in two patients who were initially suspected to have a mitochondrial myopathy, but in whom a clear diagnosis of congenital myasthenic syndromes was made through whole exome sequencing. In patient 1, whole exome sequencing revealed compound heterozygous mutations c.1228C > T (p.Arg410Trp) and c.679C > T (p.Arg227*) in collagen-like tail subunit (single strand of homotrimer) of asymmetric acetylcholinesterase (COLQ). In patient 2, in whom a deletion of exon 52 in Dystrophin gene was previously detected by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification, Sanger sequencing revealed an additional homozygous mutation c.1511_1513delCTT (p.Pro504Argfs*183) in docking protein7 (DOK7). These case reports highlight the need for careful diagnosis of clinically heterogeneous syndromes like congenital myasthenic syndromes, which are treatable, and for which delayed diagnosis is likely to have implications for patient health. The report also demonstrates that whole exome sequencing is an effective diagnostic tool in providing molecular diagnosis in patients with complex phenotypes.

How to avoid misinterpreting lung function tests in children: a few practical tips

Assessments of pulmonary function play an integral part in the clinical management of school age children as well as providing objective outcome measures in clinical and epidemiological research studies. Pulmonary function tests (PFTs) can also be undertaken in sleeping infants and in awake young children from 3 years of age. However, the clinical utility of such assessments, which are generally confined to specialist centres, has yet to be established. Whether requesting or undertaking paediatric PFTs, or simply reading about how these tests have been applied in research studies, it is essential to question whether results have been interpreted in a meaningful way. This review summarises some of the issues that need to be considered, including: why the tests are being performed; which tests are most likely to detect the suspected pathophysiology; how often such tests should be repeated; whether results are likely to be reliable (in terms of data quality, repeatability and the availability of suitable reference equations with which to distinguish the effects of disease from those of growth and development), and whether the selected tests are likely to be feasible in the individual child or study group under investigation.

Muscle disorders: the latest investigations

Patients with muscle disorders can present a diagnostic challenge to physicians because of the different ways they can present and the large number of different underlying causes. Recognition of the 'myopathic phenotype' coupled with investigations usually including electrodiagnostic and histological investigations have been essential for diagnosing the underlying cause of a myopathy. Despite these standard investigations, some patients can remain undiagnosed. New tests including more specific antibody tests for immune-mediated myopathies and the introduction of next-generation sequencing promise to revolutionise diagnostic approaches for immune and inherited myopathies, but clinical expertise remains essential to choose the most appropriate tests and interpret the results. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the different presentations to the neuromuscular clinic and the latest investigations that can be helpful in the diagnosis of muscle disorders.

Identification of FHL1 as a therapeutic target for Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Utrophin is a potential therapeutic target for the fatal muscle disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). In adult skeletal muscle, utrophin is restricted to the neuromuscular and myotendinous junctions and can compensate for dystrophin loss in mdx mice, a mouse model of DMD, but requires sarcolemmal localization. NFATc1-mediated transcription regulates utrophin expression and the LIM protein, FHL1 which promotes muscle hypertrophy, is a transcriptional activator of NFATc1. By generating mdx/FHL1-transgenic mice, we demonstrate that FHL1 potentiates NFATc1 activation of utrophin to ameliorate the dystrophic pathology. Transgenic FHL1 expression increased sarcolemmal membrane stability, reduced muscle degeneration, decreased inflammation and conferred protection from contraction-induced injury in mdx mice. Significantly, FHL1 expression also reduced progressive muscle degeneration and fibrosis in the diaphragm of aged mdx mice. FHL1 enhanced NFATc1 activation of the utrophin promoter and increased sarcolemmal expression of utrophin in muscles of mdx mice, directing the assembly of a substitute utrophin-glycoprotein complex, and revealing a novel FHL1-NFATc1-utrophin signaling axis that can functionally compensate for dystrophin.