Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, Auinash Kalsotra, and colleagues have discovered the process by which myotonic dystrophy affects activity of the small bits of genetic material called microRNAs in the heart.
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, Auinash Kalsotra, and colleagues have discovered the process by which myotonic dystrophy affects activity of the small bits of genetic material called microRNAs in the heart. Cardiovascular dysfunctions are the second leading cause of death in people with this particular type of muscular dystrophy. Their findings were published in the journal Cell Reports on January 9, 2014.
According to Dr. Kalsotra, myotonic dystrophy is a multi-systemic disease that affects about 1 in 8000 people. It occurs because of a change in a gene that is important for muscles. (Specifically, it is a trinucleotide repeat expansion in the dystrophia myotonica-protein kinase gene.) While most myotonic dystrophy research has focused on problems related to types of messenger RNAs produced from our genes by altered RNA splicing, this study demonstrates additional problems with expression of a class of regulatory RNAs known as microRNAs.
Dr. Kalsotra has appointments in both the College of Medicine and the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.