Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0026850 (muscular dystrophy)
 5,870 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a common lethal disease for which no effective treatment is currently available. There exists a mouse model of the disease in which the usefulness of gene therapy was established. However, no progress towards human application was made due to the lack of a proper method for gene delivery. During the past several years, researchers acquired data which led them to believe that bone marrow stem cells are capable of generating not only blood cells, but also liver, heart, skin, muscle, and other tissue. Although the term "stem cell plasticity" became very popular, other studies have suggested that bone marrow might contain different types of stem cells that can produce non-hematopoietic cells. For example, mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) in bone marrow give rise to osteocytes, chondrocytes, adipocytes, and skeletal muscle. Recently, researchers have been able to show that transplanted bone marrow cells can contribute to muscle cells in a human patient who was diagnosed with two genetic diseases: severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The odds of this happening is estimated at one in seven million. The results of studying this patient's medical history were reported by collaborating researchers at Children's Hospital, Los Angeles and Children's Hospital, Boston in an article titled "Long-term persistence of donor nuclei in a Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patient receiving bone marrow transplantation" published in the September 2002 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. This patient was transplanted 15 years ago at Children's Hospital Los Angeles with paternal HLA-haploidentical T cell-depleted bone marrow. He engrafted and became a hematopoietic chimera having T and NK lymphocytes of donor origin. Studies performed on the muscle biopsy from the patient 13 years after transplantation demonstrated that the muscle showed evidence of donor derived nuclei. In addition, analysis of his bone marrow showed that small numbers of MSC were also derived from the transplanted bone marrow. Unfortunately, there was no evidence that the number of new muscle cells from the donor was able to decrease the progression of his muscular dystrophy. The revelation of finding the donor's cells in the muscle of the patient provides new hope for patients with the same disease. In the future it may be possible for mesenchymal cells to be isolated, ex vivo expanded and transplanted into patients with muscle diseases.
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PMID:[Treatment progress of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD)]. 1555 94

The field of gene therapy, delivering genes to directly treat diseases, has had a remarkable year. This is no more evident than in the scope of the third annual meeting of the American Society of Gene Therapy (ASGT). Clear progress has been made in both ex vivo clinical protocols and in vivo administration. The meeting covered every major method of gene delivery, from injection of naked DNA to advanced synthetic gene delivery systems, as well as the major viral-based vectors. The optimism of the society was tempered, however, by the much-publicized death of a patient in a clinical trial at the University of Pennsylvania last year. There was a correspondingly high regulatory presence at the meeting, with several presentations by representatives of the US FDA and National Institutes of Health (NIH). Major clinical advances in gene therapy have been in genetic diseases, including hemophilia, severe combined immunodeficiency, and cystic fibrosis. Therapies are in later-stage clinical trials, and evidence of efficacy has been demonstrated, most notably by the apparent cure of SCID-affected children in Paris by ex vivo gene therapy with cytokine receptor subunit genes. Cancer gene therapy is also making significant headway, with many products entering phase II and III trials. Basic technology development is proceeding in vector targeting, enhancement of gene transfer efficiency, and regulating expression of therapeutic genes. In addition, basic research demonstrates the promise of new combined modes for treating diseases such as muscular dystrophy, lysosomal storage diseases and cardiovascular disease.
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PMID:American Society of Gene Therapy - Third Annual Meeting. 1604 54

The transplantation of stem cells and viruses in utero has tremendous potential for treating congenital disorders in the human fetus. For example, in utero transplantation (IUT) of hematopoietic stem cells has been used to successfully treat patients with severe combined immunodeficiency. In several other conditions, however, IUT has been attempted without success. Given these mixed results, the availability of an efficient non-human model to study the biological sequelae of stem cell transplantation and gene therapy is critical to advance this field. We and others have used the mouse model of IUT to study factors affecting successful engraftment of in utero transplanted hematopoietic stem cells in both wild-type mice and those with genetic diseases. The fetal environment also offers considerable advantages for the success of in utero gene therapy. For example, the delivery of adenoviral, adeno-associated viral, retroviral, and lentiviral vectors into the fetus has resulted in the transduction of multiple organs distant from the site of injection with long-term gene expression. in utero gene therapy may therefore be considered as a possible treatment strategy for single gene disorders such as muscular dystrophy or cystic fibrosis. Another potential advantage of IUT is the ability to induce immune tolerance to a specific antigen. As seen in mice with hemophilia, the introduction of Factor IX early in development results in tolerance to this protein. In addition to its use in investigating potential human therapies, the mouse model of IUT can be a powerful tool to study basic questions in developmental and stem cell biology. For example, one can deliver various small molecules to induce or inhibit specific gene expression at defined gestational stages and manipulate developmental pathways. The impact of these alterations can be assessed at various timepoints after the initial transplantation. Furthermore, one can transplant pluripotent or lineage specific progenitor cells into the fetal environment to study stem cell differentiation in a non-irradiated and unperturbed host environment. The mouse model of IUT has already provided numerous insights within the fields of immunology, and developmental and stem cell biology. In this video-based protocol, we describe a step-by-step approach to performing IUT in mouse fetuses and outline the critical steps and potential pitfalls of this technique.
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PMID:A mouse model of in utero transplantation. 2130 29