What's being billed as a medical breakthrough is giving new hope to those suffering from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
A new technique that replaces Dystrophin in patients with the deadly disease was unveiled on Tuesday at an event hosted by Jessie's Journey.
The process involves using Utrophin as an isoform of Dystrophin, enabling the similar protein to resume the duties of depleted Dystrophin in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy patients.
The technique was discovered by a team of researchers from the University of Ottawa, lead by Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Dr. Bernard Jasmin.
Dr. Jasmin explains how the team hopes that existing drugs used to treat other illnesses can be utilized to serve the needs of Duchenne patients.
"We've identified compounds in drugs that are currently used in the clinic for treating other disorders, and what we want to do is re-position or re-purpose these drugs to treat neuromuscular diseases, in particular, Duchenne,” says Dr. Jasmin.
While a wide variety of drugs are being investigated for re-purposing , one stands out in particular.
"Metformin is an anti-diabetic drug, widely prescribed for a diabetic patient of type 2, it turns out that it activates certain things in muscles that could be very beneficial perhaps to Duchenne patients,” says Dr. Jasmin. "This is a very exciting time for science and research, despite funding cutbacks and limitations. There's been so much progress in the last several years."
In order to help bypass those difficulties, Jessie’s Journey, the only Canadian charity dedicated solely to funding research related to Duchenne, presented a $1,075,000 cheque to Dr. Jasmin for future research.
Founder of Jessie's Journey John Davidson is excited to be giving away such a large amount of money.
"We're very proud this year to be giving out over a million dollars to a number of projects, and receiving that money on behalf of the research community was Dr. Bernard Jasmin from the University of Ottawa,” says Davidson.
Over the past 20 years Jessie's Journey has raised more than $8-million for research into finding a cure for Duchenne.
But on top of past donations, Jessie’s Journey has built up a large fund for future endeavours.
"We've built our endowment to over $14-million and that is the machine that will continue to fund research. I'm sure Jessie would be very proud," says Davidson. "It's the average person who reaches in their pocket and donates $20. That to me is pure philanthropy. People give from the heart."
**this story was written by Samuel Gallant. Samuel is a student in the Fanshawe College broadcast journalism program. He is performing a summer internship with Blackburn News.**
