Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a common ( 1:6400) autosomal recessive neuromuscular disorder caused by a paucity of the survival of motor neuron (SMN) protein. Although widely recognized to cause selective spinal motor neuron loss when deficient, the precise cellular site of action of the SMN protein in SMA remains unclear. In this study we sought to determine the consequences of selectively ...

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a devastating childhood motor neuron disease. SMA is caused by mutations in the survival motor neuron gene (SMN1), leading to reduced levels of SMN protein in the CNS. The actin-binding protein plastin 3 (PLS3) has been reported as a modifier for SMA, making it a potential therapeutic target. Here, we show reduced levels of PLS3 protein in the brain and spinal c...

The p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75(NTR); also known as NGFR) can mediate neuronal apoptosis in disease or following trauma, and facilitate survival through interactions with Trk receptors. Here we tested the ability of a p75(NTR)-derived trophic cell-permeable peptide, c29, to inhibit p75(NTR)-mediated motor neuron death. Acute c29 application to axotomized motor neuron axons decreased cell dea...

Spinal muscular atrophy is an inherited motor neuron disease that results from a deficiency of the survival of motor neuron (SMN) protein. SMN is ubiquitinated and degraded through the ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS). We have previously shown that proteasome inhibition increases SMN protein levels, improves motor function, and reduces spinal cord, muscle, and neuromuscular junction pathology ...

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive disease of childhood due to loss of the telomeric survival motor neuron gene, SMN1. The general functions of the main SMN1 protein product, full-length SMN (FL-SMN), do not explain the selective motoneuronal loss of SMA. We identified axonal-SMN (a-SMN), an alternatively spliced SMN form, preferentially encoded by the SMN1 gene in humans. ...

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a neuromuscular disease characterized by the degeneration of motor neurons in the spinal cord. The disease is caused by mutations of the survival of motor neuron 1 gene (SMN1), resulting in a reduced production of functional SMN protein. A major question unanswered thus far is why reduced amounts of ubiquitously expressed SMN protein specifically cause the degen...

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) results from α-motor neuron loss in the spinal cord due to low levels of the survival of motor neuron (SMN) protein, required for proper spliceosome assembly. The reduced levels of SMN cause muscle atrophy and ultimately death in the most severe cases. Although mouse models of SMA recapitulate many features of the human disease, it is still unclear whether their ph...