Muscular dystrophy improved by losartan
Losartan improves muscle regeneration and repair in mice with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a new study reveals.
Researchers tested the drug in a mouse model of the disease following
studies of Marfan syndrome, another condition characterised by muscle
wasting. Previous work by the researchers has shown that Marfan syndrome
is the result of excessive activity of transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta
in muscles. Blocking TGF-beta with losartan leads to muscle regeneration,
and normal architecture and function.
In the current study, published this month in Nature Medicine (2007;13:204),
the researchers show that TGF-beta is implicated in the muscle damage
seen in DMD as well. Mice treated with losartan were able to regenerate
muscle after injury, whereas untreated mice had large patches of scar
tissue in place of muscle.
The research was partly funded by the US National Institute of Arthritis
and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. Its director Stephen Katz is cautiously
optimistic about the findings. “But we need to do clinical studies
first. If they are successful, this therapy has the potential to help
many people with devastating diseases for which there has really been
no good treatment,” he said.
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