Post-translational Modification in Muscular Dystrophies

Muscular dystrophies are a complex group of inherited neuromuscular disorders that progressively lead to a loss of muscle fibers and mobility and muscle weakness; over time, they evolve to an increasing level of disability. Muscular dystrophies are mostly caused by genetic mutations in proteins responsible for maintaining sarcolemma structures, such as an absence or reductions of dystrophin expression, conditions which are strictly related to muscular disorders that affect most people with this disease. Along the years, with the recent advances in the understanding of muscular dystrophies, it has been shown that many changes in Post-Translational Modifications (PTMs) of muscle proteins are associated with muscular dystrophies, wherein pathogenic alterations in the modulation of these muscle proteins are directly related to the incidence of this disease. An increase in the identification of the genetic bases and molecular mechanisms involved in the most common form of muscular dystrophies, including PTMs changes, holds potential to develop new therapeutic approaches. In this chapter we will describe the most common muscular dystrophies and changes in PTM processes such as phosphorylation and glycosylation that are very important in the evolution of the disease, highlighting the lack of mass spectrometry-based (MS-based) studies of these PTMs, suggesting that the application of this technique could reveal important informations about the molecular mechanisms of muscular dystrophies.