Exon Skipping Approach to RDEB

Category
Current Projects, Drug Therapy, Whole Body Treatment
Tags
EBT
About This Project

Exon skipping approach to recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa

Lay summary

This project uses an approach called exon skipping, which allows mutations (the part of the gene where there are errors) to be skipped, rather than transferring a normal copy of the Collagen VII  gene (COL7A1). The aim is to create a shorter but functional Collagen VII protein. Preliminary results have been encouraging in animal models. Now this work will progress to larger proof of concept experiments and toxicology studies prior to a clinical trial in people.

The new chemistry would be given by subcutaneous or intravenous injection and would represent a systemic treatment for those RDEB patients who had ‘skippable’ mutations.

Researchers
Dr Matthias Titeux

Matthias is an INSERM researcher at Imagine Institute in Paris, dedicated to the research and treatment of genetic disorders. He has worked on a variety of EB research projects and since 2010 he has continued to develop therapeutic approaches for RDEB, the pathophysiology of EB and to improve molecular diagnoses of genetic skin disorders in the Prof. Hovnanian’s lab. His pre-clinical work paved the way for the development of the EBGRAFT clinical trial.

Prof Alain Hovnanian

Prof Alain Hovnanian studied medicine at the school of Paris XII University from 1977 to 1983. In 1993, he identified COL7A1 encoding type VII collagen as the defective gene for recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB) and completed his PhD at Paris VII University on the molecular aspects of inherited DEB.

Since 2009, he has been Professor of Genetics in the department of Genetics at Necker Hospital for Sick Children in Paris. He runs a translational clinic on genetic skin diseases of children and adults aimed at fostering translation of research into new treatments for orphan diseases. His laboratory is one of the founding teams of the IMAGINE Institute for genetic diseases which opened in 2014 in Paris.