Patent ID: 8304398

Claim:
A method of preparing a medicament for alleviating a symptom of a genetic muscular dystrophy in an individual in need, wherein said medicament comprises an antisense oligonucleotide that causes exon skipping, comprising: providing to a cell of said individual a compound comprising said antisense oligonucleotide; comparing the level of expression of BMP4 in said cell before and after providing said compound to said cell to determine whether said compound reduces, inhibits and/or antagonizes expression of Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4 (BMP4) in said cell of said individual; wherein a compound that reduces, inhibits and/or antagonizes expression of BMP4 is used to prepare a medicament for alleviating a symptom of a genetic muscular dystrophy; and wherein said medicament is prepared by synthesizing said oligonucleotide and preparing said oligonucleotide for delivery to said individual.