http://www.rxpgnews.com/ Medical News and Information Thu, 25 Oct 2007 07:48:36 PST en-us http://www.rxpgnews.com/musculardystrophies/Trichostatin_A_TSA_Can_Counteract_Muscular_Dystrop_5031_5031.shtml Muscular Dystrophies Scientists at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) and other institutions have demonstrated for the first time that a single drug can rebuild damaged muscle in two strains of mice that develop diseases comparable to two human forms of muscular dystrophy. This advance, which is reported online in Nature Medicine, is the latest from a research collaboration that began several years ago by the teams of Vittorio Sartorelli, M.D., at NIAMS and Pier Lorenzo Puri, M.D., Ph.D., now at Dulbecco Telethon Institute (DTI) in Rome, Italy and The Burnham Institute in La Jolla, Calif. Thu, 05 Oct 2006 01:08:00 PST http://www.rxpgnews.com/musculardystrophies/Trichostatin_A_TSA_Can_Counteract_Muscular_Dystrop_5031_5031.shtml http://www.rxpgnews.com/musculardystrophies/Valproate_effective_in_adult_spinal_muscular_atrop_4541_4541.shtml Muscular Dystrophies An epilepsy drug that has been on the market for decades can ease the symptoms of adult sufferers with a genetic disorder that seriously weakens muscles. Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis retrospectively reviewed results from off-label use of the drug valproate to treat seven adult spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) patients. Clinicians offered the drug to patients on the basis of research conducted elsewhere that showed the drug increased levels of a key protein in cell cultures. Sat, 24 Jun 2006 03:00:00 PST http://www.rxpgnews.com/musculardystrophies/Valproate_effective_in_adult_spinal_muscular_atrop_4541_4541.shtml http://www.rxpgnews.com/musculardystrophies/Muscular_dystrophy_-_early_cardiac_screening_shows_2750_2750.shtml Muscular Dystrophies Cardiac disease, particularly dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure, is the major cause of mortality in patients with muscular dystrophy.Intervention with ACE inhibitor or beta blocker therapy improves heart size and function. Sun, 30 Oct 2005 15:02:00 PST http://www.rxpgnews.com/musculardystrophies/Muscular_dystrophy_-_early_cardiac_screening_shows_2750_2750.shtml http://www.rxpgnews.com/musculardystrophies/Gene_therapy_success_for_congenital_muscular_dystr_2075_2075.shtml Muscular Dystrophies Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh report the first study to achieve success with gene therapy for the treatment of congenital muscular dystrophy (CMD) in mice, demonstrating that the formidable scientific challenges that have cast doubt on gene therapy ever being feasible for children with muscular dystrophy can be overcome. Moreover, their results, published in this week's online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), indicate that a single treatment can have expansive reach to muscles throughout the body and significantly increase survival. Tue, 16 Aug 2005 19:46:00 PST http://www.rxpgnews.com/musculardystrophies/Gene_therapy_success_for_congenital_muscular_dystr_2075_2075.shtml