Muscular Dystrophy: Backup Gene May Help Muscles Help Themselves
- 4 April 1997
- journal article
- r news
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 276 (5309) , 35
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.276.5309.35
Abstract
Mammalian DNA contains redundant genes that might, in a pinch, be capable of standing in for their counterparts. Now, scientists are trying to use one of those genes to treat a currently incurable human genetic disease: Duchenne type muscular dystrophy. Each year, about 21,000 boys worldwide are born with a genetic defect that renders them incapable of making a key muscle-strengthening protein called dystrophin. Recent work in mice suggests that it may be possible to correct this defect by enticing muscle cells to make more of a very similar protein, called utrophin.Keywords
This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: