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New therapeutic approaches to HGPS based on progerin inhibition
Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases volume 10, Article number: O8 (2015)
Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS) is caused by a de novo heterozygous mutation on LMNA gene that leads to accumulation of progerin, a mutant form of prelamin A. HGPS skin fibroblasts are characterized by multiple nuclear defects: nuclear shape abnormalities chromatin structure alterations, increased DNA damage and cell cycle alterations.
Retinoic acid may modulate LMNA gene transcription, due to the presence of a retinoic acid responsive element (L-RARE) in the LMNA promoter. Based on this knowledge, we investigated if all trans retinoic acid (ATRA) could lower progerin levels in HGPS fibroblasts. We also evaluated the effects of a combined treatment with rapamycin, a drug known to promote autophagy and reduce both farnesylated prelamin A and progerin amount.
We demonstrate a surprising effect of ATRA to repress Lamin A/C gene transcription and we show that the combined treatment with ATRA and rapamycin has a synergistic effect: it dramatically lowers progerin levels, restores both heterochromatin organization and nuclear shape, reduces DNA damage markers and improves cell viability. These promising results could open the way to a new therapeutic approach for HGPS.
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This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
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Pellegrini, C. New therapeutic approaches to HGPS based on progerin inhibition. Orphanet J Rare Dis 10 (Suppl 2), O8 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/1750-1172-10-S2-O8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1750-1172-10-S2-O8
Keywords
- Retinoic Acid
- Nuclear Shape
- Damage Marker
- Surprising Effect
- Shape Abnormality