Project description:26 limb-girdle muscular dystrophy patients from Latvia and 34 patients from Lithuania with clinical symptoms of limb-girdle muscular dystrophies, along with 204 healthy unrelated controls were genotyped for 96 most frequent known limb-girdle muscular dystrophies causing mutations for the region, using VeraCode GoldenGate system. More information can be found in article Robust genotyping tool for autosomal recessive type of limb-girdle muscular dystrophies in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders by I. Inashkina et al.
Project description:Mesoangioblasts are stem/progenitor cells derived from a subset of pericytes expressing alkaline phosphatase. They have been shown to ameliorate muscular dystrophies (currently incurable diseases) in different animal models and are now undergoing clinical experimentation for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. We show here that patients affected by limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 2D (LGMD2D, characterized by M-NM-1-sarcoglycan deficit) have a reduction of this subset of pericytes and hence mesoangioblast could not be derived for cell therapy. Therefore, we reprogrammed LGMD2D fibroblasts and myoblasts to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and developed a protocol for the derivation of mesoangioblast-like cells from them. These cells can be expanded and genetically corrected with a muscle-specific lentiviral vector expressing human M-NM-1-sarcoglycan. Upon transplantation into ad hoc generated M-NM-1-sarcoglycan-null immunodeficient mice, they generate myofibers expressing M-NM-1-sarcoglycan. This approach may be useful for muscular dystrophies that show a reduction of resident progenitors and provides evidence of pre-clinical safety and efficacy of disease-specific iPSCs. 9 samples analyzed: 3 WT HIDEMs, 3 Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 2D (LGMD2D) HIDEMs and 3 WT adult skeletal muscle derived mesoangioblasts (controls).
Project description:Mesoangioblasts are stem/progenitor cells derived from a subset of pericytes expressing alkaline phosphatase. They have been shown to ameliorate muscular dystrophies (currently incurable diseases) in different animal models and are now undergoing clinical experimentation for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. We show here that patients affected by limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 2D (LGMD2D, characterized by α-sarcoglycan deficit) have a reduction of this subset of pericytes and hence mesoangioblast could not be derived for cell therapy. Therefore, we reprogrammed LGMD2D fibroblasts and myoblasts to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and developed a protocol for the derivation of mesoangioblast-like cells from them. These cells can be expanded and genetically corrected with a muscle-specific lentiviral vector expressing human α-sarcoglycan. Upon transplantation into ad hoc generated α-sarcoglycan-null immunodeficient mice, they generate myofibers expressing α-sarcoglycan. This approach may be useful for muscular dystrophies that show a reduction of resident progenitors and provides evidence of pre-clinical safety and efficacy of disease-specific iPSCs.
Project description:Galectin-1 is being used as potential therapeutic to alleviate the progression onset of pathologies exhibited in Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy Type 2B.
Project description:Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy R12 (LGMD-R12) is caused by two recessive mutations in the anoctamin-5 gene. Our main aim was to identify genes and pathways that underlie LGMD-R12 and explain differences in the molecular predisposition and susceptibility between three different thigh muscles that are severely (semimembranosus), moderately (vastus lateralis) or mildly (rectus femoris) affected in this disease.
Project description:Familial nonmedullary thyroid cancer (FNMTC) is a disease with the inheritance pattern is autosomal dominant with incomplete penetrance, but the causative gene is not clear. To identify the disease related locus in the FNMTC family, whole-genome SNPs of nine family members (five affected and four unaffected) were genotyped. We analyzed the SNP data with a novel method and mapped the disease-causing gene to several regions on the whole genome.
Project description:Limb-girdle muscular dystrophies (LGMDs) are a heterogeneous group of progressive and genetic neuromuscular disorders that involve weakness and wasting of predominantly pelvic and shoulder girdle muscles. More than 30 subtypes have been identified, with variable phenotype. In the early stages of the disease, these LGMD share common clinical and histopathological characteristics among different subtypes and with other neuromuscular disorders, complicating the disease-subtype identification and thus, lengthening the final diagnosis of the disease. In the present study, we try to identify by a non-invasive method a molecular signature including biochemical and epigenetic parameters with a potential value for LGMD patient prognosis and stratification. Circulating miRNome was obtained by smallRNA-seq in plasma samples from LGMD patients (n=6) and matched controls (n=6). Over-representation analysis (ORA) using GO terms and KEGG database was used to study the functional enrichment of target genes. Biochemical parameters related to calcium metabolism, hormonal status, and muscle metabolism were also analyzed in these patients. Thirteen differentially expressed miRs (FDR < 0.05) were able to separate each clinical group by hierarchical clustering. Indeed, most of differentially expressed miRs were up-regulated. Functional enrichment analysis of the target genes for the dysregulated miRs revealed that targets of up-regulated miRs modulated cell cycle and cancer related pathways, while targets of down-regulated miRs were involved in muscle tissue development, regeneration and senescence. Four of the circulating miRs (miR-19b-3p, miR-192-5p, miR-122-5p and miR 323-3p) were further validated by qPCR in LGMD and in the more frequent muscular dystrophies: Duchenne (DMD)(n=5) and facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD)(n=4). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed high AUC values for selected miRs (1.0 for miR-19b-3p, miR-192-5p and miR-122-5p; 0.75 for miR-323-3p) suggesting that these miRs could be good biomarker candidates for LGMD. The covariates gender, age at disease onset, and ambulation did not correlate with the expression levels of these miRs. However, differential expression of miR-122-5p (≥10-60 fold, p< 0.0001), miR-192-5p (≥10-60 fold, p< 0.0001) and miR-323-3p (≤ 2-10 fold, p<0.05) levels compared to matched controls could discriminate LGMD from DMD or FSHD dystrophies. In addition, a strong correlation between some of these circulating miRs and biochemical variables such as CK, vitamin D3, ALP and PTH was found only in LGMD patients.
Project description:Limb-girdle muscular dystrophies (LGMD) is a group of muscle diseases characterized by pro-gressive muscle weakness and muscular atrophy of proximal muscles. Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy recessive 1 (LGMDR1), previously known as LGMD2A, is a specific LGMD caused by a gene mutation encoding the calcium-dependent neutral cysteine protease calpain-3 (CAPN3). In our previous study, a novel compound heterozygous mutation, c.635T>C causing missense mu-tation of p.Leu212Pro, was identified in LGMDR1 patients. For the investigation of the molecular mechanism for muscular dystrophy, LGMDR1 CAPN3-point-mutation mouse model was pre-pared by injecting into fertilized eggs of C57 mice the following: in vitro transcribed Cas9 mRNA, sgRNA for mutation sites, and homologous fragments. The LGMDR1 models displayed a mild and slow malnutrition phenotype until 10 months old. Western blot and immunofluorescence assay also showed that the expression level of CAPN3 protein in muscle tissue of mutant mice was similar to that of wild-type mice. Pathological results revealed that a few inflammatory cells infiltrated the endomyocytes of some homozygous mice at 10 months of age. Compared with wild-type mice, motor function was not significantly impaired in CAPN3 mutant mice. Interest-ingly, we found that the arrangement and ultrastructural alterations of mitochondria in the muscular tissue of homozygous mice at the electron microscopy level. Then, muscle regeneration of LGMDR1 was simulated using Cardiotoxin (CTX) to induce muscle necrosis and regeneration to trigger the injury modification process. A large number of inflammatory cells and damaged myofibers were observed in both mutant mice and wild type mice 3 and 6 days after CTX treat-ment. Fifteen and twenty-one days after treatment, the repair of diseased mice was significantly worse than that of control mice. RNA-seq results demonstrated that the expression of mito-chondrial-related functional genes was significantly down-regulated in mutant mice. Taken to-gether, our results strongly suggest that LGMDR1 mouse model with a novel c.635T >C mutation in CAPN3 gene was significant disfunction in muscle injury repair through impairing the mito-chondrion.