title: Therapeutic effect of camostat mesilate on Duchenne muscular dystrophy in mdx mice.
abstract: Duchenne muscular dystrophy is known to be caused by a defective gene of dystrophin, a 427-kDa cytoskeletal protein, but the effective therapeutic drug is presently unavailable. We previously reported that a trypsin-like protease designated as dystrypsin is markedly activated in the muscle microsomal fraction immediately before onset of the clinical signs in mdx mice, a dystrophin-deficient hereditary animal model for human Duchenne muscular dystrophy. In order to examine the possible participation of dystrypsin in the occurrence of the disease, we investigated the therapeutic effects of dystrypsin inhibitors on the occurrence and progress of muscular dystrophy. Here, we show that camostat mesilate, a low-molecular-weight inhibitor of trypsin-like proteases, including dystrypsin, is a candidate drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan. hsawada@bio.nagoya-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sawada
authors.forename: Kazumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nagahiro
authors.forename: Yuhsuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kikukawa
authors.forename: Susumu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ban
authors.forename: Reina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kakefuda
authors.forename: Tetsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shiomi
authors.forename: Hideyoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yokosawa
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004952:Esters; D016670:Gabexate / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006146:Guanidines; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018101:Mice, Inbred mdx; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D020388:Muscular Dystrophy, Duchenne / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D004952:Esters; D006146:Guanidines; C034532:camostat; D016670:Gabexate