Autophagy plays a critical role in the regulation of skeletal muscle integrity; however, the molecular mechanisms regulating autophagy are not fully understood. In a recently published study, researchers from McGill University Health Centre and affiliated organizations aimed to investigate these mechanisms and identify novel regulators of autophagy and skeletal muscle integrity.

Partially blocking a receptor that helps regulate the activity of the inflammatory cytokine molecule interleukin-6 (IL-6) seems to promote tissue regeneration and block degeneration in a model of osteoarthritis. As reported in the March 22, 2023, issue of Science Translational Medicine, the receptor, called glycoprotein 130 (gp130), regulates both positive and negative inflammatory responses that can help regenerate tissue, but also cause degeneration.

Tofersen’s development is progressing in fits and starts. That was evident at the U.S. FDA’s March 22 meeting of the Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee, which unanimously agreed Biogen Inc.’s failed phase III study predicted a clinical benefit in treating amyotophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that includes the rare superoxide dismutase 1 component.

A research team led by Domagoj Cikes at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA) and Josef Penninger at the University of British Columbia has discovered the critical role of the enzyme phosphate cytidylyltransferase 2 (PCYT2) in muscle health. Their findings appeared in the March 20, 2023, online edition of Nature Metabolism.

Researchers from the University of Utah applied RNASeq analysis for an undiagnosed case of a critically ill newborn with a complex phenotype, with the aim of providing better diagnosis and improving treatment outcomes.