MDA has awarded 38 new research grants totaling more than $14 million and covering more than a dozen neuromuscular diseases. 

MDA's Board of Directors met in Los Angeles July 16, where it reviewed and approved the new grants based on recommendations from the MDA Scientific and Medical Advisory Committees. Grants were scored and recommended for approval based on the capabilities of the applicant, the scientific merit of the project, and the proposal's relevance to developing treatments for the disease. The effective start date for all grants was July 1, 2010.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Acceleron Pharma announced Aug. 4 that it has received fast track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its experimental compound ACE031 for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). ACE031 is designed to interfere with the actions of myostatin, a protein that inhibits muscle growth.

Update (Nov. 5, 2012): Results announced in November 2012 showed the drug, now called drisapersen, reached blood levels approximately proportional to the injected dose at two of the three dosage levels tested and was not associated with serious adverse events. See Drisapersen Appears Safe in Non-Walking Boys With DMD.

The biopharmaceutical company AVI BioPharma has announced additional encouraging results from its clinical trial of AVI4658, an experimental treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

The new results show that, at higher doses, AVI4658 can result in substantial production of the needed dystrophin protein in muscle fibers.

The company has not yet released results of any tests of muscle function in the 19 children in this trial.

Unwanted responses by the immune system to dystrophin have been seen in a small, MDA-supported clinical trial of gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD)— an unexpected finding, investigators say.

Rather than a setback, the finding is “the beginning of a new way of thinking” about gene therapy, said Jerry Mendell, director of the Center for Gene Therapy at Nationwide Children's and a long-time MDA research grantee and MDA-associated clinician. Mendell was the neurologist on this trial.

AVI4658, an experimental treatment for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) caused by certain mutations in the gene for the muscle protein dystrophin, has shown promising results when delivered intravenously to 19 trial participants.

MDA has awarded two grants for research aimed at determining the precise molecular causes of facioscapulohumeral dystrophy (FSHD), and developing therapies for the disease.

MDA and Friends of FSH Research (FFSHR) based in Kirkland, Wash., will jointly fund a two-year, $200,000 grant to Joel Chamberlain, an assistant professor of medical genetics at the University of Washington in Seattle.

The oral drug tadalafil (brand name Cialis), commonly used to treat erectile dysfunction, is being tested in an MDA-supported trial to see whether it can improve blood flow to forearm muscles in adults with Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD).

This story was updated Oct. 6, 2010.

In many forms of muscular dystrophy, including Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD), weakness and degeneration of the cardiac muscle can be a major part of the disease, and one that frequently shortens life.

MDA-supported scientists in France have identified a previously unknown type of muscle stem cell located in the spaces between muscle fibers in mice. They say the new cells, dubbed "PICs," may play at least as important a role in muscle regeneration and repair as satellite cells, which have been recognized as stemlike cells in muscle since the 1960s. As such, they could have implications for treatment of muscular dystrophies.