High-throughput identification of post-transcriptional utrophin up-regulators for Duchenne muscle dystrophy (DMD) therapy

Upregulation of endogenous utrophin offers great promise for treating DMD, as it can functionally compensate for the lack of dystrophin caused by DMD gene mutations, without the immunogenic concerns associated with delivering dystrophin. However, post-transcriptional repression mechanisms targeting the 5′ and 3′ untranslated regions (UTRs) of utrophin mRNA significantly limit the magnitude of utrophin upregulation achievable by promoter activation. Using a utrophin 5′3′UTR reporter assay, we performed a high-throughput screen (HTS) for small molecules capable of relieving utrophin post-transcriptional repression. We identified 27 hits that were ranked using a using an algorithm that we designed for hit prioritization that we call Hit to Lead Prioritization Score (H2LPS). The top 10 hits were validated using an orthogonal assay for endogenous utrophin expression. Evaluation of the top scoring hit, Trichostatin A (TSA), demonstrated utrophin upregulation and functional improvement in the mdx mouse model of DMD. TSA and the other small molecules identified here represent potential starting points for DMD drug discovery efforts.