Patent Application: US-19800708-A

Abstract:
the invention provides a method for generating an oligonucleotide with which an exon may be skipped in a pre - mrna and thus excluded from a produced mrna thereof . further provided are methods for altering the secondary structure of an mrna to interfere with splicing processes and uses of the oligonucleotides and methods in the treatment of disease . further provided are pharmaceutical compositions and methods and means for inducing skipping of several exons in a pre - mrna .

Description:
this study includes six dmd patients affected by different mutations ( table 1 ). patient dl 515 . 2 carries an exon 45 - 50 deletion ; hence exon 51 skipping would be frame correcting . patient dl 363 . 2 has a deletion of exon 45 - 54 ; the reading frame for this patient would be corrected by an exon 44 skip . for patient 50685 . 1 , who is affected by an exon 48 - 50 deletion , reading frame correction requires an exon 51 skip . patient dl 589 . 2 has an exon 51 - 55 deletion ; the reading frame would be corrected by an exon 50 skip . patient 53914 . 1 carries a single - exon 52 deletion . notably , in this case , both the skipping of exon 51 or exon 53 would be frame correcting . finally , patient 50423 . 1 has a deletion of a single base pair in exon 49 , at position 7389 on cdna level , resulting in a frame - shift and a premature stop codon in exon 49 . since exon 49 is an in - frame exon , skipping of this exon would correct the reading frame for this patient . we have previously identified aons with which the skipping of the mentioned target exons 44 , 49 , 50 , 51 and 53 can be induced at concentrations of 1 μm ( 23 ). in subsequent dose - response experiments , however , we have obtained substantial skipping efficiencies with lower concentrations of 500 nm or 200 nm , and even 100 nm for most aons ( data not shown ). this had the extra advantageous effect of lower doses of pei required for transfection , which significantly reduced the levels of cytotoxicity as found in our earlier transfection experiments . myotube cultures from the six dmd patients were transfected with the relevant aons . on average , 70 % to 90 % of cells showed specific nuclear uptake of fluorescent aons . rna was isolated 24 hours post - transfection and analyzed by rt - pcr ( fig1 ). in all patients , the targeted exons were skipped at high efficiencies , and precisely at the exon boundaries , as confirmed by sequence analysis of the novel shorter transcripts ( fig1 ). for patient 50685 . 1 , an additional transcript fragment was found ( fig1 , panel c ). sequence analysis showed that this was generated by the activation of a cryptic splice site in exon 51 . this was previously also observed in human control cells treated with the same aon ( 23 ). remarkably , low levels of spontaneous exon skipping were observed in untreated cells derived from patients dl 363 . 2 ( exon 44 skip ), dl 589 . 2 ( exon 50 skip ), and 53914 . 1 ( exon 53 skip ). rt - pcr analysis on several larger areas of the dmd gene transcript did not reveal additional , unexpected , aberrant splicing patterns induced by the aon - treatment . the resulting in - frame transcripts should restore dystrophin synthesis . indeed , immuno - histochemical analysis of transfected myotube cultures detected dystrophin in the majority of myotubes for each patient ( fig2 ). the therapeutic efficiency was determined by double staining , using antibodies against myosin , to identify sufficiently differentiated myotubes and dystrophin . on average , 75 % to 80 % of myosin - positive myotubes showed dystrophin expression . we observed clear membrane - bound dystrophin for patients dl 363 . 2 , dl 589 . 2 and 53914 . 1 two days post - transfection ( fig2 , rows b , d , and e ). the presence of dystrophin was confirmed for each patient by western blot analysis ( fig3 ). for patients 50685 . 1 and dl 363 . 2 , we performed time course experiments , which indicated that dystrophin can be detected as soon as 16 hours post - transfection ( fig3 , panel d ) and at increasing levels up to seven days post - transfection ( fig3 , panel b ). the dystrophin proteins from patients dl515 . 2 , dl 363 . 2 and dl 589 . 2 are significantly shorter than the human control , which is due to the size of the deletion . for one patient , dl 363 . 2 , we also assessed whether the induction of the dystrophin synthesis resulted in the restoration of the dgc ( fig4 ). prior to aon treatment , we found reduced , mainly cytoplasmatic alpha , beta , gamma sarcoglycan and beta - dystroglycan signals ( 30 %, 30 %, 40 % and 80 %, respectively ) ( fig4 , row a ). following aon transfection , increased levels of mainly membrane - bound alpha -, beta - and gamma - sarcoglycans and beta - dystroglycan were detected in 70 %, 90 %, 90 % and 80 % of the treated myotube cultures , respectively ( fig4 , row b ). the reading frame correction strategy for dmd patients is aimed at antisense - induced , targeted exon skipping . this would convert a severe dmd phenotype into a mostly milder bmd phenotype . we determined the broad applicability in six patients , carrying five different deletions and a point mutation in an exon 49 ( table 1 ). following aon treatment , we show for each patient the precise skipping of the targeted exon on the rna level , and a dystrophin protein in 75 % to 80 % of the treated myotubes . in particular , we here report , for the first time , the application of a single aon treatment ( i . e ., the induced skipping of exon 51 ) to correct the reading frame for several different deletions . interestingly , the levels of exon skipping observed in the dmd patient cells are significantly higher than those previously obtained in human control cells ( 23 ). typically , the novel skip transcript is the major product . this can be explained by the action of the nonsense - mediated decay ( nmd ) process ( 25 , 32 ). in control cells , the skip of an out - of - frame exon results in an out - of - frame transcript , which will be susceptible to nmd . in patient cells , the skip of a target exon results in an in - frame transcript that would be resistant to nmd and thus more stable than the out - of - frame transcript originally present . for three of the patients ( dl 363 . 2 , dl 589 . 2 and 53914 . 1 ), we detected low levels of spontaneous skipping of exons 44 , 50 and 53 in untreated cells . this phenomenon has previously also been described for so - called revertant muscle fibers ( 33 - 35 ). these dystrophin - positive fibers are present in low amounts ( 2 % to 10 %) in dmd muscles and are considered to be the result of secondary somatic mutations and / or alternative splicing that restore the reading frame . the existence of revertant fibers has been suggested to correlate with the severity of the disease ( 36 , 37 ). restoration of the dystrophin synthesis could be detected as soon as 16 hours post - transfection . at two days post - transfection , dystrophin was detected at the membrane , indicating that these novel bmd - like proteins are likely in part functional . furthermore , we show that restoration of the dystrophin synthesis appears to re - establish the formation of the dystrophin - glycoprotein complex . in patients dl 363 . 2 and dl 589 . 2 , the targeted exon skipping enlarged the deletions to span exons 44 - 54 and 50 - 55 , respectively . so far , these deletions have not been reported in dmd or bmd patients . this means that they either do not exist or generate a very mild phenotype not diagnosed as bmd . considering both the large variety of bmd mutations and the markedly lower incidence of bmd observed , we consider the last explanation more plausible than the first . the out - of - frame deletions from patients dl 515 . 1 , 50685 . 1 and 50423 . 1 were converted into in - frame deletions as observed in bmd patients carrying deletions of exon 45 - 51 , exon 48 - 51 and exon 49 ( 30 , 38 - 40 ); noteworthy , the exon 48 - 51 deletion has even been described in an asymptomatic person ( 40 ). on the other hand , however , there are also dmd patients carrying such deletions ( 38 , 41 - 43 ). since most of these theoretical in - frame deletions have been detected on the dna level only , we hypothesize that the dystrophin deficiency in these dmd patients may be caused by additional aberrant splicing patterns on the rna level , resulting in an out - of - frame transcript . it is feasible to correct over 75 % of the mutations reported in the leiden dmd - mutation database ( 30 ). our results indicate that antisense - induced reading frame correction will be a promising therapeutic approach for many dmd patients carrying different deletions and point mutations . towards the establishment of clinical trials , we are currently investigating and optimizing delivery methods in muscle tissue of mice in vivo . the aons applied ( table 1 ) were previously described ( 23 ). they contain a 5 ′ fluorescein group ( 6 - fam ), a full - length phosphorothioate backbone and 2 ′- o - methyl modified ribose molecules ( eurogentec , be ). to avoid interference with the fluorescent signals of the secondary antibodies , unlabelled aons were used for immuno - histochemical analyses . primers for rt - pcr analysis ( sequences available upon request ) were synthesized by eurogentec ( be ) or by isogen bioscience bv ( nl ). primary human myoblasts from patients dl 515 . 2 ( deletion exon 45 - 50 ), dl 363 . 2 ( deletion exon 45 - 54 ), 50685 . 1 ( deletion exon 48 - 50 ), dl 589 . 2 ( deletion exon 51 - 55 ) and 53914 . 1 ( deletion exon 52 ) were isolated from a muscle biopsy and cultured as described ( 44 ). cultures were seeded in collagen pre - coated flasks and plates ( vitrogen 100 , cohesion ). myotubes were obtained from confluent myoblast cultures , following 7 to 14 days of serum deprivation . they were subsequently transfected using polyethylenimine ( pei ) for three hours in low - serum medium , according to the manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions ( exgen500 ; mbi fermentas ), and with 3 . 5 μl pei applied per μg of transfected aon . for rt - pcr analysis , concentrations of 500 nm aon were used . at this concentration , the highest skipping levels can be obtained , albeit with moderate levels of cell death . because more viable myotubes are required for immunohistochemical and western blot analysis , concentrations of 200 nm were applied . for patient 50423 . 1 , who carries a point mutation in exon 49 , only fibroblasts were available . following infection ( moi 50 - 100 ) with an adenoviral vector containing the myod gene ( ad50myod ), the fibroblasts were forced into myogenesis according to protocols described previously ( 45 - 47 ). two hours post - infection , the medium was replaced by low - serum medium , and cells were incubated for eight to ten days until myotubes were formed . transfection conditions were identical to those described above . at 24 hours post - transfection , total rna was isolated from the myotube cultures ( rna - bee rna isolation solvent , campro scientific , nl ). 300 ng of total rna was used for rt - pcr analysis using c . therm polymerase ( roche diagnostics , nl ) in a 20 μl reaction at 60 ° c . for 30 minutes , primed with different dmd gene - specific reverse primers ( table 1 ). primary pcrs were performed by 20 cycles of 94 ° c . ( 40 seconds ), 60 ° c . ( 40 seconds ) and 72 ° c . ( 60 seconds ). one μl of these reactions was then reamplified in nested pcrs by 32 cycles of 94 ° c . ( 40 seconds ), 60 ° c . ( 40 seconds ) and 72 ° c . ( 60 seconds ). pcr products were analyzed on 1 . 5 % or 2 % agarose gels . noteworthy , no evidence for a significant preference for the amplification of shorter fragments was obtained in pcr analyses on a defined series of mixtures of known quantities of the normal and shorter transcript fragments ( data not shown ). rt - pcr products were isolated from agarose gels using the qiaquick ® gel extraction kit ( qiagen ). direct dna sequencing was carried out by the leiden genome technology center ( lgtc ) using the bigdye terminator cycle sequencing ready reaction kit ( pe applied biosystems ) and analyzed on an abi 3700 sequencer ( pe applied biosystems ). protein extracts were isolated from treated myotube cultures ( 25 cm 2 flasks ), using 150 μl of treatment buffer ( 75 mm tris - hcl ph 6 . 8 , 15 % sds , 5 % b - mercaptoethanol , 2 % glycerol , 0 . 001 % bromophenol blue ), at two to four days post - transfection , depending on the survival rate of the myotubes . for the time course experiments , protein extracts were isolated 4 hours , 8 hours , 16 hours , 24 hours and 48 hours post - transfection ( for patient 50685 . 1 ) or at 2 days , 4 days and 7 days post - transfection ( for patient dl 363 . 2 ). polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and western blotting were performed as described by anderson et al ., with some minor adjustments ( 48 ). briefly , samples ( 75 μl ) were run overnight at 4 ° c . on a 4 % to 7 % polyacrylamide gradient gel . gels were blotted to nitrocellulose for five to six hours at 4 ° c . blots were blocked for one hour with 5 % non - fat dried milk in tbst buffer ( 10 mm tris - hcl , 0 . 15 m nacl , 0 . 5 % tween 20 , ph 8 ), followed by an overnight incubation with ncl - dys2 ( which recognizes dystrophin ) diluted 1 : 50 . hrp - conjugated anti - mouse ( santa cruz ) diluted 1 : 10 , 000 was used as a secondary antibody . immuno - reactive bands were visualized using lumi - lightplus western blotting substrate and scanned with a lumi - imager ( roche diagnostics , nl ). treated myotube cultures were fixed in − 20 ° c . methanol at one to four days post - transfection , depending of the survival rate of the myotubes . prior to reaction with the different antibodies , the cells were incubated for one hour in a blocking solution containing 5 % horse serum ( gibco brl ) and 0 . 05 % tween - 20 ( sigma ) in pbs ( gibco brl ). all antibodies used were diluted in this blocking solution . the following antibodies were applied : desmin polyclonal antibody ( icn biomedicals ) diluted 1 : 100 , myosin monoclonal antibody diluted 1 : 100 ( mf20 ; developmental studies hybridoma bank , university of iowa ), myosin polyclonal antibody l53 diluted 1 : 100 ( a gift from dr . m . van den hoff , amc , nl ), mandys1 ( a gift from dr . g . morris , north east wales institute , uk ) diluted 1 : 10 and ncl - dys2 ( novacastra laboratories ltd ) diluted 1 : 10 to detect dystrophin , ncl - a - sarc ( novacastra laboratories ltd ) diluted 1 : 75 , ncl - b - sarc ( novacastra laboratories ltd ) diluted 1 : 50 , ncl - g - sarc ( novacastra laboratories ltd ) diluted 1 : 50 and ncl - b - dg ( novacastra laboratories ltd ) diluted 1 : 50 to detect α - sarcoglycan , β - sarcoglycan , γ - sarcoglycan and β - dystroglycan , respectively . after one hour incubation , slides were rinsed and incubated for one hour with the secondary antibodies alexa fluor 594 goat anti - rabbit conjugate diluted 1 : 1000 or alexa fluor 488 goat anti - mouse conjugate diluted 1 : 250 ( molecular probes inc ). the slides were analyzed using a leica confocal microscope equipped with epifluorescence optics . digital images were captured using a ccd camera ( photometrics ). a series of aons ( two per exon , see table 2 ) was designed to bind to exon - internal target sequences showing a relatively high purine - content and , preferably , an open secondary pre - mrna structure ( at 37 ° c . ), as predicted by the rna mfold version 3 . 1 server [ 22 ]. the aons varied in length between 15 and 24 bp , with g / c contents between 26 and 67 %. they were synthesized with the following chemical modifications : a 5 ′- fluorescein group ( 6 - fam ), a full - length phosphorothioate backbone and 2 ′- o - methyl - modified ribose molecules ( eurogentec , be ). the primers used for reverse transcription - polymerase chain reaction ( rt - pcr ) analysis ( table 3 ) were synthesized by eurogentec ( be ) or by isogen bioscience bv ( nl ). primary human myoblasts were isolated from a muscle biopsy from a non - affected individual ( km108 ) by enzymatic dissociation . briefly , the tissue was homogenized in a solution containing 5 mg / ml collagenase type viii ( sigma ), 5 mg / ml bovine albumin fraction v ( sigma ), 1 % trypsin ( gibco brl ) in pbs ( gibco brl ). following serial incubation steps of 15 minutes at 37 ° c ., suspensions containing the dissociated cells were added to , and pooled in , an equal volume of proliferation medium ( nut . mix f - 10 ( ham ) with glutamax - 1 , gibco brl ) supplemented with 20 % fetal bovine serum ( gibco brl ) and 1 % penicillin / streptomycin solution ( gibco brl ). after centrifugation , the cells were plated and further cultured in proliferation medium , using flasks that were pre - coated with purified bovine dermal collagen ( vitrogen 100 ; cohesion ). the myogenic cell content of the culture , as determined by the percentage of desmin - positive cells in an immunohistochemical assay , was improved to 58 % by repetitive pre - plating [ 23 ]. myotubes were obtained from confluent myoblast cultures following 7 to 14 days of incubation in low - serum medium ( dmem ( gibco brl ), supplemented with 2 % glutamax - 1 , 1 % glucose , 2 % fetal bovine serum and 1 % penicillinlstreptomycin solution ). for transfection of the myotube cultures , we used polyethylenimine ( pei ; exgen 500 ) according to the manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions ( mbi fermentas ). the cultures were transfected for three hours in low - serum medium with 1 mm of each aon linked to pei at a ratio - equivalent of 3 . 5 . rna isolation and rt - pcr analysis at 24 hours post - transfection , total rna was isolated from the myotube cultures using rnazol b according to the manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions ( campro scientific , nl ). one microgram of rna was then used for rt - pcr analysis using c . therm . polymerase ( roche diagnostics ) in a 20 μl reaction at 60 ° c . for 30 minutes , primed with different dmd gene - specific reverse ( rt ) primers ( table 3 ). primary pcrs were carried out with outer primer sets ( see table 3 ), for 20 cycles of 94 ° c . ( 40 seconds ), 60 ° c . ( 40 seconds ), and 72 ° c . ( 90 seconds ). one microliter of this reaction was then reamplified in nested pcrs using the appropriate primer combinations ( table 3 ) for 32 cycles of 94 ° c . ( 40 seconds ), 60 ° c . ( 40 seconds ), and 72 ° c . ( 60 seconds ). pcr products were analyzed on 1 . 5 or 2 % agarose gels . sequence analysis rt - pcr products were isolated from agarose gels using the qiaquick ® gel extraction kit ( qiagen ). direct dna sequencing was carried out by the leiden genome technology center ( lgtc ) using the bigdye ® terminator cycle sequencing ready reaction kit ( pe applied biosystems ), and analyzed on an abi 3700 sequencer ( pe applied biosystems ). aons were empirically analyzed for the induction of exon skipping following transfection into human control myotube cultures , using the cationic polymer polyethylenimine ( pei ). as determined by the nuclear uptake of the fluorescent aons , average transfection efficiencies of 60 - 80 % were obtained . at 24 hours post - transfection , transcripts were analyzed by rt - pcr using different primer combinations encompassing the targeted exons ( table 3 ). of the 30 aons tested , a total of 21 ( 70 %) reproducibly generated shorter transcript fragments with sizes corresponding to the specific skipping of the targeted exons ( fig5 and table 2 ). in fact , as confirmed by sequence analysis of the shorter transcripts ( data not shown ), we could induce the specific skipping of 13 out of the 15 exons targeted ( five out of the seven in - frame exons , and eight out of the eight out - of - frame exons ). no skipping of exons 47 and 48 was detected ( fig5 , panels e and g ). in the specific transcript regions that were screened in these experiments , we observed in the non - transfected control myotubes , alternative splicing patterns around exons 2 and 29 ( fig5 , panels b and c ). the alternative products were sequenced and found to be due to the skipping of exons 2 - 7 ( in - frame ), exons 3 - 7 ( out - of - frame ), exons 28 - 29 ( in - frame ), and exons 27 - 29 ( in - frame ). this genuinely occurring exon skipping was also detected previously in human skeletal muscle [ 24 , 25 ]. remarkably , the level of the alternative splicing was significantly enhanced by the aon treatment of the transfected myotube cultures . also noteworthy is the observation that h2aon1 not only induced exon 2 skipping in the normal transcript , but also in one of the alternative transcripts consisting of exons 1 and 2 spliced to exon 8 ( fig5 , panel b ). the majority of aons induced the precise skipping of the targeted exons , using the original splice sites of the adjacent exons . however , in response to h51aon2 , an in - frame cryptic splice site was used in exon 51 ( fig5 , panel h ). the level of this alternatively spliced product was variable in serial transfection experiments . finally , in some of the transfection experiments , additional aberrant splicing fragments were detected due to the co - skipping of adjacent exons . their incidence , however , was inconsistent , and at very low levels . references to example 2 ( numbering in this part refers strictly to numbering used in example 2 ) hoffman e . p ., r . h . brown jr ., and l . m . kunkel . dystrophin : the protein product of the duchenne muscular dystrophy locus . cell 1987 , 51 : 919 - 928 . [ 2 ] monaco a . p ., c . j . bertelson , s . liechti - gallati , h . moser , and l . m . kunkel . an explanation for the phenotypic differences between patients bearing partial deletions of the dmd locus . genomics 1988 , 2 : 90 - 95 . [ 3 ] koenig m ., a . h . beggs , and m . moyer , et al . the molecular basis for duchenne versus becker muscular dystrophy : correlation of severity with type of deletion . am . j . hum . genet . 1989 , 45 : 498 - 506 . [ 4 ] zubrzycka - gaarn e . e ., d . e . bulman , and g . karpati , et al . the duchenne muscular dystrophy gene product is localized in sarcolemma of human skeletal muscle . nature 1988 , 333 : 466 - 469 . [ 5 ] yoshida m . and e . ozawa . glycoprotein complex anchoring dystrophin to sarcolemma . j . biochem . ( tokyo ) 1990 , 108 : 748 - 752 . [ 6 ] ervasti j . m . and k . p . campbell . membrane organization of the dystrophin - glycoprotein complex . cell 1991 , 66 : 1121 - 1131 . [ 7 ] koenig m ., a . p . monaco and l . m . kunkel . the complete sequence of dystrophin predicts a rod - shaped cytoskeletal protein . cell 1988 , 53 : 219 - 226 . [ 8 ] van deutekom j . c ., s . s . floyd and d . k . booth , et al . implications of maturation for viral gene delivery to skeletal muscle . neuromuscul . disord . 1998 , 8 : 135 - 148 . [ 9 ] mayeda a ., y . hayase , h . inoue , e . ohtsuka and y . ohshima . surveying cis - acting sequences of pre - mrna by adding antisense 20 - o - methyl oligoribonucleotides to a splicing reaction . j . biochem . ( tokyo ) 1990 , 108 : 399 - 405 . [ 10 ] galderisi u ., a . cascino and a . giordano . antisense oligonucleotides as therapeutic agents . j . cell . physiol . 1999 , 181 : 251 - 257 . [ 11 ] baker b . f . and b . p . monia . novel mechanisms for antisense - mediated regulation of gene expression . biochim . biophys . acta 1999 , 1489 : 3 - 18 . [ 12 ] kole r . and p . sazani . antisense effects in the cell nucleus : modification of splicing . curr . opin . mol . ther . 2001 , 3 : 229 - 234 . [ 13 ] sicinski p ., y . geng , a . s . ryder - cook , e . a . barnard , m . g . darlison and p . j . barnard . the molecular basis of muscular dystrophy in the mdx mouse : a point mutation . science 1989 , 244 : 1578 - 1580 . [ 14 ] dunckley m . g ., m . manoharan , p . villiet , i . c . eperon and g . dickson . modification of splicing in the dystrophin gene in cultured mdx muscle cells by antisense oligoribonucleotides . hum . mol . genet . 1998 , 7 : 1083 - 1090 . [ 15 ] mann c . j ., k . honeyman and a . j . cheng , et al . antisense - induced exon skipping and synthesis of dystrophin in the mdx mouse . proc . natl . acad . sci . u . s . a . 2001 , 98 : 42 - 47 . [ 16 ] wilton s . d ., f . lloyd and k . carville , et al . specific removal of the nonsense mutation from the mdx dystrophin mrna using anti - sense oligonucleotides . neuromuscul . disord . 1999 , 9 : 330 - 338 . [ 17 ] takeshima y ., h . wada , m . yagi , et al . oligonucleotides against a splicing enhancer sequence led to dystrophin production in muscle cells from a duchenne muscular dystrophy patient . brain dev . 2001 , 23 : 788 - 790 . [ 18 ] pramono z . a ., y . takeshima , h . alimsardjono , a . ishii , s . takeda and m . matsuo . induction of exon skipping of the dystrophin transcript in lymphoblastoid cells by transfecting an antisense oligodeoxynucleotide complementary to an exon recognition sequence . biochem . biophys . res . commun . 1996 , 226 : 445 - 449 . [ 19 ] watakabe a ., k . tanaka and y . shimura . the role of exon sequences in splice site selection . genes dev . 1993 , 7 : 407 - 418 . [ 20 ] tanaka k ., a . watakabe and y . shimura . polypurine sequences within a downstream exon function as a splicing enhancer . mol . cell . biol . 1994 , 14 : 1347 - 1354 . [ 21 ] van deutekom j . c ., m . bremmer - bout , a . a . janson , et al . antisense - induced exon skipping restores dystrophin expression in dmd patient - derived muscle cells . hum . mol . genet . 2001 , 10 : 1547 - 1554 . [ 22 ] mathews d . h ., j . sabina , m . zuker and d . h . turner . expanded sequence dependence of thermodynamic parameters improves prediction of rna secondary structure . j . mol . biol . 1999 , 288 : 911 - 940 . [ 23 ] richler c . and d . yaffe . the in vitro cultivation and differentiation capacities of myogenic cell lines . dev . biol . 1970 , 23 : 1 - 22 . [ 24 ] surono a ., y . takeshima , t . wibawa , z . a . pramono and m . matsuo . six novel transcripts that remove a huge intron ranging from 250 to 800 kb are produced by alternative splicing of the 50 region of the dystrophin gene in human skeletal muscle . biochem . biophys . res . commun . 1997 , 239 : 895 - 899 . [ 25 ] shiga n ., y . takeshima , h . sakamoto , et al . disruption of the splicing enhancer sequence within exon 27 of the dystrophin gene by a nonsense mutation induces partial skipping of the exon and is responsible for becker muscular dystrophy . j . clin . invest . 1997 , 100 : 2204 - 2210 . [ 26 ] wells d . j ., k . e . wells , e . a . asante , et al . expression of human full - length and minidystrophin in transgenic mdx mice : implications for gene therapy of duchenne muscular dystrophy . hum . mol . genet . 1995 , 4 : 1245 - 1250 . [ 27 ] sironi m ., u . pozzoli , r . cagliani , g . p . comi , a . bardoni and n . bresolin . analysis of splicing parameters in the dystrophin gene : relevance for physiological and pathogenetic splicing mechanisms . hum . genet . 2001 , 109 : 73 - 84 . a . aartsma - rus et al ., neuromuscular disorders 12 ( 2002 ) s71 - s77 . this study includes two dmd patients affected by different frame - disrupting mutations in the dmd gene that require the skip of two exons for correction of the reading frame ( table 5 ). patient dl 90 . 3 carries a nonsense mutation in exon 43 . considering that this single exon is out - of - frame , the skipping of exon 43 would remove the nonsense mutation but not restore the reading frame . since the combination with exon 44 is in - frame , in this patient , we aimed at double - exon skipping , targeting both these exons . patient dl 470 . 2 is affected by a deletion of exons 46 to 50 . frame restoration would require a double - exon skipping of both exons flanking the deletion . myotube cultures from both patients were transfected with a mixture of exon 43 - and 44 - specific aons ( dl90 . 3 ) or exon 45 - and 51 - specific aons ( dl470 . 2 ). the individual aons ( table 5 ) were previously highly effective in single - exon skipping . transfection efficiencies were typically over 80 %, as indicated by the number of cells with specific nuclear uptake of the fluorescent aons . rt - pcr analysis at 24 to 48 hours post - transfection , indeed demonstrated the feasibility of specific double - exon skipping in both samples ( fig6 and 7 ). this was confirmed by sequence analysis ( data not shown ). additional shorter transcript fragments were obtained due to single - exon skipping : in patient dl90 . 3 , exon 44 skipping ( fig6 ), and in patient dl470 . 2 , exon 51 skipping ( fig7 ). the splicing of exon 44 directly to exon 52 ( as induced in dl470 . 2 ) generates an in - frame transcript . we hypothesized that by inducing the skipping of the entire stretch of exons in between , i . e ., multi - exon skipping , we would induce a bmd - like deletion ( 45 - 51 ) that covers and restores several known , smaller , dmd mutations . this would further enlarge the group of dmd patients that would benefit from one type of frame correction . the feasibility of multi - exon skipping was first shown in human control myotubes that were treated with a mixture of the exon 45 - and 51 - specific aons ( fig7 ; km 109 ). we then applied it to myotubes from a third dmd patient carrying an exon 48 - 50 deletion ( 50685 . 1 ). by the aon - induced skipping of the ( remaining ) stretch of exons in between and including exons 45 and 51 , we obtained the anticipated smaller in - frame transcript with exon 44 spliced to exon 52 ( fig7 ). the skipping of more than one exon from one pre - mrna molecule requires that both aons are present in the same nucleus , targeting the same molecule . to enlarge this chance , we here studied the feasibility of one combined aon carrying both aons specific for exons 45 and 51 ( h45aon5 and h51aon2 ) linked by ten uracil nucleotides ( table 5 ). following transfection of this “ u - linker aon ” into myotubes from human control and the dmd patients d1470 . 2 and 50685 . 1 , rt - pcr analysis demonstrated its efficacy to generate the anticipated in - frame transcript with exon 44 spliced to exon 52 ( fig7 ). this multi - exon skipping occurred specifically and precisely at the exon boundaries as confirmed by sequence analysis ( data not shown ). in contrast to patient dl 470 . 2 , the u - linker aon was a slightly more efficient than the mixture of aons in the human control and in patient 50685 . 1 . aons ( table 5 ) targeting exons 43 , 44 and 51 were previously described ( aartsma - rus , 2002 ). aons targeting exon 45 were newly designed ( sequences upon request ). all aons contain a 5 ′ fluorescein group ( 6 - fam ), a full - length phosphorothioate backbone and 2 ′- o - methyl modified ribose molecules ( eurogentec , be ). to avoid interference with the fluorescent signals of the secondary antibodies , unlabelled aons were used for immuno - histochemical analyses . primers for rt - pcr analysis ( table 5 , sequences available upon request ) were synthesized by eurogentec ( be ). at 24 to 48 hours post - transfection , total rna was isolated from the myotube cultures ( rna - bee rna isolation solvent , campro scientific , nl ). 300 ng of total rna were used for rt - pcr analysis using c . therm . polymerase ( roche diagnostics , nl ) in a 20 μl reaction at 60 ° c . for 30 minutes , primed with different dmd gene - specific reverse primers ( table 5 ). primary pcrs were performed by 20 cycles of 94 ° c . ( 40 seconds ), 60 ° c . ( 40 seconds ) and 72 ° c . ( 60 seconds ). one μl of these reactions was then re - amplified in nested pcrs by 32 cycles of 94 ° c . ( 40 seconds ), 60 ° c . ( 40 seconds ) and 72 ° c . ( 60 seconds ). pcr products were analyzed on 1 . 5 % or 2 % agarose gels . for quantification of the transcript products , nested pcrs were performed using 24 cycles . pcr products were analyzed using the dna 7500 labchip ® kit and the agilent 2100 bioanalyzer ( agilent technologies , nl ). rt - pcr products were isolated from agarose gels using the qiaquick gel extraction kit ( qiagen ). direct dna sequencing was carried out by the leiden genome technology center ( lgtc ) using the bigdye terminator cycle sequencing ready reaction kit ( pe applied biosystems ) and analyzed on an abi 3700 sequencer ( pe applied biosystems ). expression vectors encoding a transcript comprising an oligonucleotide of the invention due to the defined turnover rate of both the dystrophin pre - mrna and the aons , our dmd frame - correction therapy would require repetitive administrations of aons . in addition , relatively high levels of antisense rna will be necessary within the nucleus , where transcription and splicing of the dystrophin pre - mrna occur . therefore , we have set up a vector system in which specific aon sequences are incorporated into a modified gene . in this example , this embodiment is described for u7 small nuclear rna ( u7snrna ). u7snrna is the rna component of the u7 ribonucleoprotein particle ( u7snrnp ) that is involved in the processing of the 3 ′ end of histone pre - mrnas . inherent to its function , u7snrna is efficiently transported back from the cytoplasm to the nucleus in which it gets subsequently incorporated into very stable u7snrnp complexes . a similar approach was successfully applied in aon - based gene therapy studies on β - thalassemia ( 53 , 54 ). in these studies , different plasmids were engineered containing a modified u7snrna gene from which the natural antisense sequence directed to the histone pre - mrna was replaced with antisense sequences targeted to different β - thalassemia - associated aberrant splicing sites in the β - globin gene . following transfection of these plasmids , correct splicing and expression of the full - length β - globin protein could be restored with an efficiency of up to 65 % in cultured cells expressing the different mutant β - globin genes . various u7snrna gene constructs were engineered as described in reference 53 with the modification that the β - globin sequences were exactly replaced by the antisense sequences derived from the different aons . in this example , the sequences were replaced by the antisense sequences of m46aon4 , 6 , 9 , or 11 that were effective in inducing the skipping of mouse exon 46 . a sense construct was included as negative control ( m46son6 ). following construct validation by sequencing , the plasmids were tested in vitro by transfection into cultured c2c12 mouse myoblasts . the u7snrna - m46aon6 construct was most efficient . to enhance delivery of the aon - u7snrna gene constructs , we have cloned them into recombinant adeno - associated viral ( raav ) vectors . aav is a single - stranded dna parvovirus that is non - pathogenic and shows a helper - dependent life cycle . in contrast to other viruses ( adenovirus , retrovirus , and herpes simplex virus ), raav vectors have demonstrated to be very efficient in transducing mature skeletal muscle . because application of raav in classical dmd “ gene addition ” studies has been hindered by its restricted packaging limits (& lt ; 5 kb ), we applied raav for the efficient delivery of the much smaller u7snrna antisense constructs (& lt ; 600 bp ) to mature murine skeletal muscle . the raav - u7 - aon vectors also contain the gene for green fluorescence protein ( gfp - cdna ), which allows analysis of transduction efficiencies in muscle post - injection . high titer virus productions were effective in inducing exon skipping . 1 . hoffman e . p ., r . h . brown jr ., and l . m . kunkel ( 1987 ) dystrophin : the protein product of the duchenne muscular dystrophy locus . cell 51 : 919 - 928 . 2 . hoffman e . p ., k . h . fischbeck , r . h . brown , m . johnson , r . medori , j . d . loike , j . b . harris , r . waterston , m . brooke , l . specht , et al . 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( 2002 ) exploiting the natural diversity in adenovirus tropism for therapy and prevention of disease . j . virol . 76 : 4612 - 4620 . 48 . anderson l . v . and k . davison ( 1999 ) multiplex western blotting system for the analysis of muscular dystrophy proteins . am . j . pathol . 154 : 1017 - 1022 . 49 . neugebauer k . m . et al ., j . cell . biol . 129 : 899 - 908 ( 1995 ). 50 . tacke r . and j . l . manley , proc . soc . exp . biol . med . 220 : 59 - 63 ( 1999 ). 51 . graveley b . r . et al ., curr . biol . 9 : r6 - 7 ( 1999 ). 53 . gorman l , suter d , emerick v , et al . stable alteration of pre mrna splicing patterns by modified u7 small nuclear rnas . proc . natl . acad . sci . usa 1998 , 4929 - 4934 . 54 . suter d , tomasini r , reber u , et al . double target antisense u7 snrnas promote efficient skipping of an aberrant exon in three human beta thalassemic mutations . hum . mol . genet . 1999 , 8 : 2415 - 2423 . a two aons were tested per exon . their different lengths and g / c contents (%) did not correlate to their effectivity in exon skipping ( 1 , induced skipping , 2 , no skipping ). the aons were directed to purine ( a / g )- rich sequences as indicated by their ( antisense ) u / c content (%). skipping of the target exons resulted in either an in - frame ( if ) or an out - of - frame ( of ) transcript .