Author ORCID Identifier

Kanneboyina Nagaraju: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1601-8489

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-8-2024

Keywords

Biomarker, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, HMGB1, Muscle differentiation, RNA sequencing

Abstract

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a progressive muscle wasting disorder affecting 1:3500 male births and is associated with myofiber degeneration, regeneration, and inflammation. Glucocorticoid treatments have been the standard of care due to immunomodulatory/immunosuppressive properties but novel genetic approaches, including exon skipping and gene replacement therapy, are currently being developed. The identification of additional biomarkers to assess DMDrelated inflammatory responses and the potential efficacy of these therapeutic approaches are thus of critical importance. The current study uses RNA sequencing of skeletal muscle from two mdx mouse models to identify high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) as a candidate biomarker potentially contributing to DMD-related inflammation. HMGB1 protein content was increased in a human iPSC-derived skeletal myocyte model of DMD and microdystrophin treatment decreased HMGB1 back to control levels. In vivo, HMGB1 protein levels were increased in vehicle treated B10-mdx skeletal muscle compared to B10-WT and significantly decreased in B10-mdx animals treated with adeno-associated virus (AAV)-microdystrophin. However, HMGB1 protein levels were not increased in D2-mdx skeletal muscle compared to D2-WT, demonstrating a strain-specific difference in DMDrelated immunopathology.

Comments

10.1242/bio.060542

Publisher Attribution

© 2024. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.

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