Peptide-Conjugated PMOs for the Treatment of Myotonic Dystrophy

Abstract

Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) have shown great therapeutic potential in the treatment of many neuromuscular diseases including myotonic dystrophy 1 (DM1). However, systemically delivered ASOs display poor biodistribution and display limited penetration into skeletal muscle. The conjugation of cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) to phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligonucleotides (PMOs), a class of ASOs with a modified backbone, can be used to enhance ASO skeletal muscle penetration. Peptide–PMOs (P-PMOs) have been shown to be highly effective in correcting the DM1 skeletal muscle phenotype in both murine and cellular models of DM1 and at a molecular and functional level. Here we describe the synthesis and conjugation of P-PMOs and methods for analyzing their biodistribution and toxicity in the HSA-LR DM1 mouse model and their efficacy both in vitro and in vivo using FISH and RT-PCR splicing analysis.