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An expanded CTG trinucleotide repeat causes trans RNA interference: a new hypothesis for the pathogenesis of myotonic
N Sasagawa1, N Takahashi, K Suzuki
1Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Tokyo, 153-8902, Japan.
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
|October 21, 1999
Abstract:
Here we report a novel mechanism for the pathogenesis of myotonic dystrophy (DM). The DMPK mRNA with expanded CTG trinucleotide repeats interacts with other transcripts having expanded CAG repeats. This "trans RNA interference" occurs in vitro only when the number of CTG repeats is over 140 and the number of target CAG repeats exceeds 35. The trans RNA interference can explain all the phenomena previously reported about DM.