Dystrophin, a component of the muscle membrane cytoskeleton, is the protein altered in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and Becker Muscular Dystrophy (BMD). Dystrophin shares significant homology with other cytoskeletal proteins, such as alpha-actinin and spectrin. On the basis of its sequence similarity with alpha-actinin and spectrin, dystrophin has been proposed to function as dimer. Howeve...

The CRISPR/Cas9 genome-editing platform is a promising technology to correct the genetic basis of hereditary diseases. The versatility, efficiency and multiplexing capabilities of the CRISPR/Cas9 system enable a variety of otherwise challenging gene correction strategies. Here, we use the CRISPR/Cas9 system to restore the expression of the dystrophin gene in cells carrying dystrophin mutations ...

To ascertain whether dystrophin immunohistochemistry could improve DMD/BMD carrier detection, we analyzed 14 muscle biopsies from 13 DMD and one BMD probable and possible carriers. All women were also evaluated using conventional methods, including genetic analysis, clinical and neurological evaluation, serum CK levels, EMG, and muscle biopsy. In 6 cases, there was a mosaic of dystrophin-positi...

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), caused by mutations at the dystrophin gene, is the most common form of muscular dystrophy. There is no cure for DMD and current therapeutic approaches to restore dystrophin expression are only partially effective. The absence of dystrophin in muscle results in dysregulation of signaling pathways, which could be targets for disease therapy and drug discovery. P...

A lack of the cytoskeletal protein dystrophin causes muscle fiber necrosis in Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophies (DMD/BMD) and in murine X-linked muscular dystrophy (MDX). However, no overt disease symptoms are observed in dystrophin-less cultured myotubes, and the biological function of dystrophin in normal muscle cells is still unknown. In this work, we have extended our studies on a model ...

The clinical progression of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients with deletions can be predicted in 93% of cases by whether the deletion maintains or disrupts the translational reading frame (frameshift hypothesis). We have identified and studied a number of patients who have deletions that do not conform to the translational frame hypothesis. The most common exception to the frameshift h...

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD) are caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene. We studied 106 patients with a diagnosis of probable DMD/BMD by analyzing 20 exons of the dystrophin gene in their blood and, in some of the cases, by immunohistochemical assays for dystrophin in muscle biopsies. In 71.7% of the patients, deletions were found in at least one of ...

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a fatal muscle-wasting disease characterized by dystrophin deficiency from mutations in the dystrophin gene. Antisense oligonucleotide (AO)-mediated exon skipping targets restoration of the dystrophin reading frame to allow production of an internally deleted dystrophin protein with functional benefit for DMD patients who have out-of-frame deletions. After a...

Dystrophin coordinates the assembly of a complex of structural and signalling proteins that is required for normal muscle function. A key component of the dystrophin-associated protein complex (DPC) is alpha-dystrobrevin, a dystrophin-related and -associated protein whose absence results in muscular dystrophy and neuromuscular junction defects [1,2]. The current model of the DPC predicts that d...

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is the most prevalent and severe form of human muscular dystrophy. Investigations into the molecular basis for Duchenne muscular dystrophy were greatly facilitated by seminal studies in the 1980s that identified the defective gene and its major protein product, dystrophin. Biochemical studies revealed its tight association with a multi-subunit complex, the so-named d...