1. Introduction Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a severe genetic disorder predominantly affecting boys, with an incidence of approximately 1 in 5,000 male births. It is caused by mutations in the DMD gene that lead to disrupted production of dystrophin, a protein essential for muscle stability. Exon skipping is a therapeutic strategy that restores the reading frame of the mutated gene to enable dystrophin production. This study focuses on applying …

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Exon skipping is a promising therapeutic strategy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a severe genetic disorder. By using antisense oligonucleotides (AOs), this method aims to restore a partially functional dystrophin protein. The study conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of five randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 322 participants, focusing on two drugs: eteplirsen and drisapersen. The analysis evaluated outcomes such as the 6-minute walk test (6MWT), North Star Ambulatory Assessment …

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This study addresses the challenges of aberrant pre-mRNA splicing in Pompe disease, caused by pathogenic variants in the acid α-glucosidase (GAA) gene. These variants often lead to the use of cryptic splice sites, resulting in disrupted protein production. The research proposes a pipeline to identify these splicing defects and correct them using antisense oligonucleotides (AONs).   The team developed a splicing assay to detect aberrant splicing patterns in patient-derived fibroblasts. …

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I took some notes from the article and am happy to share them with anyone interested! The Problem: Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), which are designed to target and regulate specific genes, face two critical barriers limiting their therapeutic effectiveness: "endosomal entrapment” and “inefficient nuclear localization”. Only a small percentage of ASOs escape from endosomes to the cytosol and nucleus, preventing them from effectively modulating gene expression. The Potential Solution: Improving the …

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Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) are promising for targeting diseases by modulating gene expression, even for genes previously considered "undruggable." ASOs enter cells through endocytosis but face challenges as they often get trapped in endosomes, limiting their therapeutic effect. Strategies to enhance endosomal escape, including using endosomal escape agents and non-viral delivery vehicles, are critical to increase their effectiveness. Despite some success, only 1-2% of ASOs reach the target mRNA in the …

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Personal take on this article: This paper discusses the work of the Dutch Center for RNA Therapeutics (DCRT) in developing individualized antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) for patients with rare brain or eye diseases. ASOs are short pieces of modified DNA that can adjust gene expression and have the potential to treat genetic disorders. However, many rare diseases are specific to individual patients, meaning pharmaceutical companies often overlook these cases due to …

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Personal take on this article: Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a severe genetic disorder caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene, leading to muscle degeneration and weakness. In recent years, exon skipping therapy has emerged as a promising molecular treatment. This approach uses antisense oligonucleotides (AONs) to skip specific exons during the mRNA splicing process, helping to restore the reading frame and produce a functional, albeit truncated, dystrophin protein. This …

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    Personal take on this article: The paper provides a comprehensive set of guidelines for designing antisense oligonucleotides (AONs) with a focus on splice modulation. AONs are tools used to interfere with gene expression by targeting specific mRNA sequences, either to degrade them, block translation, or modify splicing. This study particularly focuses on the latter, using AONs to induce exon skipping in the dystrophin gene, which has therapeutic potential …

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  Personal take on this article: Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is a progressive genetic disorder that primarily affects muscles of the face, shoulder girdle, and upper arms, with the potential to cause severe muscle atrophy over time. The disease is characterized by the aberrant expression of the DUX4 gene due to compromised epigenetic repression of the D4Z4 array, leading to toxic effects in muscle tissue. FSHD can be categorized into …

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