Dergi makalesi Açık Erişim

Lentiviral Micro-dystrophin Gene Treatment into Late-stage mdx Mice for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Disease

2023    Eren, Selen Abanuz; Tastan, Cihan; Karadeniz, Kevser Buse; Turan, Raife Dilek; Cakirsoy, Didem; Kancagi, Derya Dilek; Yilmaz, Sevdican Ustun; Oztatlici, Mustafa; Oztatlici, Hulya; Ozer, Samed; Tumentemur, Gamze; Baykal, Ahmet Tarik; Ovali, Ercument

Aim Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) results in a deficiency of dystrophin expression in patient muscle fibers, leading to progressive muscle degeneration. Treatment of DMD has undertaken current transformation with the advancement of novel gene therapy and molecular biology techniques, which are secure, well-tolerated, and effective therapeutic approaches. Introduction DMD gene therapies have mainly focused on young DMD patients as in vivo animal model trials have been performed in 0-1-month DMD mice. However, it has not yet been answered how micro-dystrophin encoding lentiviral treatment affects Dystrophin expression and DMD symptoms in 10-month mdx mice. Methods We planned to integrate the micro-Dystrophin gene sequence into the muscle cells by viral transfer, using micro-Dystrophin-encoding lentivirus to reduce the dystrophic pathology in late-stage dmd mice. The histopathological and physiological-functional regeneration activities of the lentiviral-micro-Dystrophin gene therapy methods were compared, along with changes in temporal Dystrophin expression and their functionality, toxicity, and gene expression level. Results Here, we showed that the micro-dystrophin transgene transfers intramuscularly and intraperitoneally in late-stage dmd-mdx-4cv mice restored dystrophin expression in the skeletal and cardiac muscle (p <0.001). Furthermore, motor performance analysis, including hanging and tracking tests, improved statistically significantly after the treatment (p <0.05). Conclusion Consequently, this study suggests that patients in the late stages of muscular dystrophy can benefit from lentiviral micro-dystrophin gene therapies to present an improvement in dystrophic muscle pathology.