Therapeutic Strategies for Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 1

Spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder that affects one or two individuals per 100,000. The disease is caused by an extended CAG repeat in exon 8 of the ATXN1 gene and is characterized mostly by a profound loss of cerebellar Purkinje cells, leading to disturbances in coordination, balance, and gait. At present, no curative treatment is available for SCA1. However, increasing knowledge on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of SCA1 has led the way towards several therapeutic strategies that can potentially slow disease progression. SCA1 therapeutics can be classified as genetic, pharmacological, and cell replacement therapies. These different therapeutic strategies target either the (mutant) ATXN1 RNA or the ataxin-1 protein, pathways that play an important role in downstream SCA1 disease mechanisms or which help restore cells that are lost due to SCA1 pathology. In this review, we will provide a summary of the different therapeutic strategies that are currently being investigated for SCA1.

MDPI

Researchers developed a new algorithm that is six times more reliable than previous models at predicting the effects of #geneticmutations on #RNA formation that may cause rare #hereditarydiseases or #cancer: http://go.tum.de/674287

📷D.Gankin

Better search for the cause of hereditary diseases

A Munich research team has developed an algorithm that predicts the effects of genetic mutations on RNA formation six times more precisely than previous models.

Vatiquinone seen to slow FA progression by 75% after 1.5 years |...

The oral therapy vatiquinone was found to slow disease progression in Friedreich's ataxia patients by 75% after nearly 18 months in trial.

Friedreich's Ataxia News