This project combines a basic research component aimed at understanding how muscle genes are regulated, with an applied component aimed at designing regulatory cassettes for expressing therapeutic proteins in striated muscle. Prior basic studies concentrated primarily on understanding how the mouse M-creatine kinase (MCK) gene enhancer and promoter control MCK expression in skeletal and cardiac muscle. These studies will continue but much of our future effort will be directed toward mapping three additional regulatory regions which confer higher transcriptional activity to the enhancer-promoter complex, and a fourth region which confers gene copy number-dependent expression. Control elements within these regions will be identified and these sequences will then be used to identify and understand the function of their associated transcription factors. Applied aspects of the project utilize the basic information above, together with published data concerning other striated muscle genes, to construct regulatory cassettes that will be useful in treating skeletal and cardiac muscle diseases, and in therapeutic situations which could benefit from using skeletal muscle as a source of secreted proteins; e.g., hormone and clotting factor deficiency diseases, and tissue healing. Goals for these studies are to optimize the transcriptional activity of cassettes designed to function in different striated muscle types, while simultaneously maintaining tight muscle-specific transcription so as to prevent therapeutic gene expression in immune system and other non-muscle cells that may be inadvertently transduced and damaged by mis-targeted gene therapy vectors. Two additional goals are to build miniature regulatory cassettes that will be compatible with packaging therapeutic cDNAs such as mini- and micro-dystrophins into AAV and other small viral vectors, and to build high activity muscle-specific cassettes expressing externally regulatable transcription factors that will selectively transcribe therapeutic cDNAs in response to non-harmful drugs, thus permitting the external manipulation of therapeutic gene product levels.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AR018860-28
Application #
6749520
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-SMB (01))
Program Officer
Nuckolls, Glen H
Project Start
1976-05-01
Project End
2008-04-30
Budget Start
2004-05-01
Budget End
2005-04-30
Support Year
28
Fiscal Year
2004
Total Cost
$352,990
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Washington
Department
Biochemistry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
605799469
City
Seattle
State
WA
Country
United States
Zip Code
98195
Amoasii, Leonela; Long, Chengzu; Li, Hui et al. (2017) Single-cut genome editing restores dystrophin expression in a new mouse model of muscular dystrophy. Sci Transl Med 9:
Muir, Lindsey A; Nguyen, Quynh G; Hauschka, Stephen D et al. (2014) Engraftment potential of dermal fibroblasts following in vivo myogenic conversion in immunocompetent dystrophic skeletal muscle. Mol Ther Methods Clin Dev 1:14025
Hu, Chuhong; Kasten, Jennifer; Park, Hana et al. (2014) Myocyte-mediated arginase expression controls hyperargininemia but not hyperammonemia in arginase-deficient mice. Mol Ther 22:1792-802
Gantz, Jay A; Palpant, Nathan J; Welikson, Robert E et al. (2012) Targeted genomic integration of a selectable floxed dual fluorescence reporter in human embryonic stem cells. PLoS One 7:e46971
Himeda, Charis L; Tai, Phillip W L; Hauschka, Stephen D (2012) Analysis of muscle gene transcription in cultured skeletal muscle cells. Methods Mol Biol 798:425-43
Tai, Phillip W L; Smith, Catherine L; Angello, John C et al. (2012) Analysis of fiber-type differences in reporter gene expression of ?-gal transgenic muscle. Methods Mol Biol 798:445-59
Tai, Phillip Wl; Fisher-Aylor, Katherine I; Himeda, Charis L et al. (2011) Differentiation and fiber type-specific activity of a muscle creatine kinase intronic enhancer. Skelet Muscle 1:25
Gonçalves, Manuel A F V; Janssen, Josephine M; Nguyen, Quynh G et al. (2011) Transcription factor rational design improves directed differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells into skeletal myocytes. Mol Ther 19:1331-41
Himeda, Charis L; Chen, Xiaolan; Hauschka, Stephen D (2011) Design and testing of regulatory cassettes for optimal activity in skeletal and cardiac muscles. Methods Mol Biol 709:3-19
Himeda, Charis L; Ranish, Jeffrey A; Pearson, Richard C M et al. (2010) KLF3 regulates muscle-specific gene expression and synergizes with serum response factor on KLF binding sites. Mol Cell Biol 30:3430-43

Showing the most recent 10 out of 45 publications