Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy’s Treatment Revealed

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SAN FRANCISCO (GaeaTimes.com)- The National Academy of Sciences conducted a latest research, that revealed Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), can be treated by injecting a natural human protein, namely Biglycan. This experiment was conducted on a mice with the same disease and its reports were published on December 27.

According to medical reports, one out of 3,500 boys in the United States suffer from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, that is often inherited by the next generations. Boys are more vulnerable to this disease than girls, because, DMD gene on one X Chromosome can lead to the disease, while the girls, in order to inherit the disease, need to have it on both their X-Chromosomes, which happens only on rare occasions. This disease is a result of mutation Dystrophin producing genes. The absence of this element leads to muscle degeneration. In such cases, the latest study has shown that protein Biglycan helps in slowing down the muscle degeneration. This particular protein draws Utrophin to the muscle membrane. Utrophin and Dystrophin, being homolog protein, serves the same purpose of slowing down muscle degeneration. The abstract of the study, has therefore been entitled as “Biglycan recruits Utrophin to the Sarcolemma and counters Dystrophic pathology in mdx mice”.

The experiment conducted on the mice, showed that those who were injected with protein Biglycan, slowed the degeneration effect of their muscles by 30%, than those mice who were not injected with it. A professor of neuroscience at Brown University, Justin Fallon, said that this study may improve the conditions of several patients suffering from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. However, since it was conducted only on mice, now they need to execute in on human, in order to reestablish its potential in treating the disease in mankind too.