Myotonic dystrophy 2 (DM2) is a form of muscular dystrophy, a disease that leads to progressive muscle degeneration. It is caused by the expansion of a repetitive DNA sequence containing multiple CCTG bases in the CNBP gene. In general, the sequence of nucleobases in the DNA carries the genetic information. Patients suffer from muscle weakness that is more pronounced in the area of the muscles close to the trunk, as well as sustained muscle stiffness and pain. Although DM2 occurs in roughly one out of 10,000 people in Germany, there are no targeted therapies. In initial studies, Prof. Claudia Günther and her team at the Carl Gustav Carus University Hospital at the Technical University of Dresden also observed that patients with DM2 suffer more from autoimmune diseases with an increased production of antibodies in the blood than the general population. However, the underlying mechanism for these symptoms was previously unknown.
False alarm of the immune system during muscle disease
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Researchers at the University Hospitals of Dresden and Bonn of the DFG Transregio 237 and from the Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation2 at the University of Bonn have made progress clarifying why patients with myotonic dystrophy 2 have a higher tendency to develop autoimmune diseases. Their goal is to understand the development of the disease, and their research has provided new, potential therapeutic targets. The results of the study have now been published in the renowned journal "Nature Communications".
Myotonic dystrophy 2 (DM2) is a form of muscular dystrophy, a disease that leads to progressive muscle degeneration. It is caused by the expansion of a repetitive DNA sequence containing multiple CCTG bases in the CNBP gene. In general, the sequence of nucleobases in the DNA carries the genetic information. Patients suffer from muscle weakness that is more pronounced in the area of the muscles close to the trunk, as well as sustained muscle stiffness and pain. Although DM2 occurs in roughly one out of 10,000 people in Germany, there are no targeted therapies. In initial studies, Prof. Claudia Günther and her team at the Carl Gustav Carus University Hospital at the Technical University of Dresden also observed that patients with DM2 suffer more from autoimmune diseases with an increased production of antibodies in the blood than the general population. However, the underlying mechanism for these symptoms was previously unknown.
Myotonic dystrophy 2 (DM2) is a form of muscular dystrophy, a disease that leads to progressive muscle degeneration. It is caused by the expansion of a repetitive DNA sequence containing multiple CCTG bases in the CNBP gene. In general, the sequence of nucleobases in the DNA carries the genetic information. Patients suffer from muscle weakness that is more pronounced in the area of the muscles close to the trunk, as well as sustained muscle stiffness and pain. Although DM2 occurs in roughly one out of 10,000 people in Germany, there are no targeted therapies. In initial studies, Prof. Claudia Günther and her team at the Carl Gustav Carus University Hospital at the Technical University of Dresden also observed that patients with DM2 suffer more from autoimmune diseases with an increased production of antibodies in the blood than the general population. However, the underlying mechanism for these symptoms was previously unknown.
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