OTTAWA — A study led by Dr. Bernard Jasmin, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medecine of the University of Ottawa and his colleagues, identified a novel therapeutic approach that could potentially counteract the effects of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), a severe and prevalent inherited genetic disorder.

In patients, DMD is caused by an absence of the protein dystrophin thereby resulting in the muscle wasting commonly associated with the disease.

A therapeutic strategy to treat DMD involves identifying compounds that can elevate utrophin expression, a protein that can compensate for the lack of dystrophin in muscle fibers of affected patients and be used as a protection to deficient muscles. In their study, Jasmin and colleagues demonstrate that a clinically-relevant drug can be used for that purpose paving the way for a potential new treatment.

The study is published in the September issue of Human Molecular Genetics released by major academic publisher Oxford Journals.