[Alternative splicing and the cure of spinal muscular atrophy]

Alternative splicing of the messenger RNA plays a fundamental role in the flow of genetic information from DNA to proteins by expanding the coding capacity of the genome. The regulation of alternative splicing is as important as the regulation of transcription to determine the specific characteristics of cells and tissues, the normal functioning of cells and the responses of eukaryotic cells to external signals. Basic knowledge of the pre-mRNA sequences and splicing factors that recognize them has allowed scientists to design a therapeutic synthetic oligonucleotide for spinal muscular atrophy. This is an autosomal recessive inherited disease in which the SMN1 gene is mutated and affects one in 10,000 births. By blocking the binding of a negative splicing factor to the mRNA of a paralogue of the SMN1 gene, called SMN2, the Spinraza oligonucleotide corrects an abnormal alternative splicing event of the SMN2 gene and allows the synthesis of high levels of the SMN protein, constituting the first successful case of cure of a neurodegenerative disease.