Tawil Rabi
University of Rochester Medical Center, Neuromuscular Disease Center, Rochester, New York 14642, USA.
Neurotherapeutics. 2008 Oct;5(4):601-6. doi: 10.1016/j.nurt.2008.07.005.
Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), a dominantly inherited disorder, is the third most common dystrophy after Duchenne and myotonic muscular dystrophy. No known effective treatments exist for FSHD. The lack of an understanding of the underlying pathophysiology remains an obstacle in the development of targeted therapeutic interventions. The genetic defect is a loss of a critical number of a repetitive element (D4Z4) in the 4q subtelomeric region. The loss of the repeats results in specific changes in chromatin structure, although neither the molecular nor the cellular consequences of this change are known. Nevertheless, these epigenetic changes in chromatin structure offer a potential therapeutic target. This review discusses current management strategies in FSHD as well as potential therapeutic interventions to slow down or reverse the progressive muscle atrophy and weakness.
面肩肱型肌营养不良症(FSHD)是一种常染色体显性遗传病,是继杜氏肌营养不良症和强直性肌营养不良症之后的第三大常见肌营养不良症。目前尚无已知的有效治疗方法。对潜在病理生理学的缺乏了解仍然是靶向治疗干预发展的障碍。遗传缺陷是4号染色体亚端粒区域关键数量的重复元件(D4Z4)缺失。重复序列的缺失导致染色质结构发生特定变化,尽管这种变化的分子和细胞后果尚不清楚。然而,染色质结构的这些表观遗传变化提供了一个潜在的治疗靶点。本文综述了FSHD的当前管理策略以及减缓或逆转进行性肌肉萎缩和无力的潜在治疗干预措施。