Written by Dr. Terri M Driessen Edited by Dr. W.M.C. van Roon-Mom
Antisense oligonucleotides: a potential treatment for SCA3 that partially rescues SCA3 disease mouse models
Identifying new ways to slow down or delay neurodegenerative diseases has been a key research focus in the SCA field. There are many avenues that scientists can take to address this question. One method is to target the disease-causing protein: by lowering the levels of the disease-causing protein, scientists may be able to alter disease progression. These methods have recently been used in studies in other neurodegenerative disorders, like SCA2, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and Huntington’s disease.
Prior work by the laboratory of Hank Paulson at the University of Michigan has suggested these methods may also work in SCA3. They used antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) to lower the SCA3 disease-causing protein. ASOs are short DNA sequences that bind to specific pieces of RNA. When the ASOs bind to RNA, it is broken down and no protein is made. The Paulson laboratory designed ASOs that bind to ATXN3, which is the RNA associated with SCA3. These ASOs were able to lower the expression of mutant ATXN3 (Moore, et al. 2017). Importantly, they were capable of lowering the expression of mutant ATXN3 in both mouse models of SCA3 and SCA3 patient fibroblasts (Moore, et al. 2017). By removing the SCA3-causing protein from cells, they predicted that the cells would have a better chance at surviving.
This previous work was promising, but several questions remained. How long would one ASO treatment work? Would the ASO work even after the SCA3 mice started showing symptoms? Are there any obvious side effects, like increased inflammation, after ASO injection? And importantly, would lowering ATXN3 levels help with motor coordination problems in SCA3 mice?
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