Drug Candidate For Treating Spinal Muscular Atrophy Identified
Sunday, November 8, 2009 - 22:28
in Health & Medicine
A chemical cousin of the common antibiotic tetracycline might be useful in treating spinal muscular atrophy, a currently incurable disease that is the leading genetic cause of death in infants. The new molecule fixes a mistake in a cellular processing mechanism called RNA splicing, thereby boosting the levels of a protein whose deficiency in neurons causes the disease.