The PHENIX Experiment at RHIC

The physics emphases of the PHENIX collaboration and the design and current status of the PHENIX detector are discussed. The plan of the collaboration for making the most effective use of the available luminosity in the first years of RHIC operation is also presented.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. Further details of the PHENIX physics program available at http://www.rhic.bnl.gov/phenix

Identification of Muscle-Specific MicroRNAs in Serum of Muscular Dystrophy Animal Models: Promising Novel Blood-Based Markers for Muscular Dystrophy

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a lethal X-linked disorder caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene, which encodes a cytoskeletal protein, dystrophin. Creatine kinase (CK) is generally used as a blood-based biomarker for muscular disease including DMD, but it is not always reliable since it is easily affected by stress to the body, such as exercise. Therefore, more reliable biomarkers of muscular dystrophy have long been desired. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, ∼22 nucleotide, noncoding RNAs which play important roles in the regulation of gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Recently, it has been reported that miRNAs exist in blood. In this study, we hypothesized that the expression levels of specific serum circulating miRNAs may be useful to monitor the pathological progression of muscular diseases, and therefore explored the possibility of these miRNAs as new biomarkers for muscular diseases. To confirm this hypothesis, we quantified the expression levels of miRNAs in serum of the dystrophin-deficient muscular dystrophy mouse model, mdx, and the canine X-linked muscular dystrophy in Japan dog model (CXMDJ), by real-time PCR. We found that the serum levels of several muscle-specific miRNAs (miR-1, miR-133a and miR-206) are increased in both mdx and CXMDJ. Interestingly, unlike CK levels, expression levels of these miRNAs in mdx serum are little influenced by exercise using treadmill. These results suggest that serum miRNAs are useful and reliable biomarkers for muscular dystrophy

Progress in muscular dystrophy research with special emphasis on gene therapy

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked, progressive muscle-wasting disease caused by mutations in the DMD gene. Since the disease was described by physicians in the 19th century, information about the subject has been accumulated. One author (Sugita) was one of the coworkers who first reported that the serum creatine kinase (CK) level is elevated in progressive muscular dystrophy patients. Even 50 years after that first report, an elevated serum CK level is still the most useful marker in the diagnosis of DMD, a sensitive index of the state of skeletal muscle, and useful to evaluate therapeutic effects. In the latter half of this article, we describe recent progress in the therapy of DMD, with an emphasis on gene therapies, particularly exon skipping