Center of Research Translation in Muscular Dystrophy Therapeutic Development

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Overall CORT Abstract The Center for Gene Therapy at The Research Institute of Nationwide Children's Hospital (RINCH) has a dedicated translational program that targets the muscular dystrophies, with a particular longstanding interest in developing meaningful therapies for the most common forms, including Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). Our Center's goals include unraveling disease pathogenesis and developing new treatment paradigms that can be translated from the bench to the bedside, and under this CORT proposal we seek to accelerate this translational process. Project 1 (PI, Paul Martin, PhD) seeks extend a therapy now entering trials in DMD to other forms of muscular dystrophy, by applying the overexpression of Galgt2, an enzyme that alters skeletal muscle glycosylation to boost the expression of proteins that ameliorate disease. Project 2 (PI, Scott Harper, PhD) explores novel approaches to modulating the expression of the DUX4 gene to treat the relatively common and debilitating FSHD. Project 3 (PI, Kevin Flanigan, MD) seeks to rapidly translate a newly discovered mechanism for dystrophin translational control into meaningful therapy for boys with DMD. All three projects make use of two critical research cores: the Therapeutic Viral Vector Design and Development Research Core (PI, Louise Rodino-Klapac, PhD) and the Muscular Dystrophy Cell and Serum Banking Core (PI, Kim McBride, MD). In addition to the investigators represented here by projects, the proposed CORT represents a larger muscle disease research base at the Nationwide Children's and the Ohio State University, for which a well-developed pilot and feasibility program is described. This proposed CORT is consistent with the mission of NIAMS, which has the goal of finding effective treatments for and to improving the quality of life of patients with debilitating forms of muscle disease.