ArticleHuman molecular genetics2019
PAX7 target gene repression is a superior FSHD biomarker than DUX4 target gene activation, associating with pathological severity and identifying FSHD at the single-cell level.
Article in Human molecular genetics, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 54 citations in OpenAlex.
- FSHD muscle shows perturbation in fibroadipogenic progenitor cells, mitochondrial function and alternative splicing independently of inflammation.Human molecular genetics · 2024Pooled it
- Impaired Myogenic Differentiation Is a Shared Feature Across Genetic Myopathies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Elevated labile iron contributes to membrane repair deficits in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy.iScience · 2026Article
- RNA cargo profiling of muscle extracellular vesicles identifies candidate biomarkers of disease activity and muscle degeneration in FSHD.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Article
- Biallelic PAX7 variants cause a novel Satellite Cell-opathy with progressive muscle involvement resembling facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy.Cell death & disease · 2026Article
- Diversity challenges and reconciles genetics in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy.Journal of human genetics · 2025Review
- DUX4 at 25: how it emerged from "junk DNA" to become the cause of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy.Skeletal muscle · 2025Review
- The recent clinical trial of losmapimod for the treatment of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy.Neuromuscular disorders : NMD · 2025Review
- Facioscapulohumeral Dystrophy: Molecular Basis and Therapeutic Opportunities.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2025Review
- The Unexplored Role of Connexin Hemichannels in Promoting Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy Progression.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells Express the DUX4 Protein: A Basis for Further Vascular Research.Turk patoloji dergisi · 2025Article
- SMCHD1 activates the expression of genes required for the expansion of human myoblasts.Nucleic acids research · 2024Article
- Antagonism among DUX family members evolved from an ancestral toxic single homeodomain protein.iScience · 2023Article
- Apabetalone, a Clinical-Stage, Selective BET Inhibitor, Opposes DUX4 Target Gene Expression in Primary Human FSHD Muscle Cells.Biomedicines · 2023Article
- Influence ofInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- An in silico FSHD muscle fiber for modeling DUX4 dynamics and predicting the impact of therapy.eLife · 2023Article
- The double homeodomain protein DUX4c is associated with regenerating muscle fibers and RNA-binding proteins.Skeletal muscle · 2023Article
- Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy: the road to targeted therapies.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2023Review
- Antagonism among DUX family members evolved from an ancestral toxic single homeodomain protein.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Whole exome sequencing highlights rare variants inFrontiers in genetics · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is a prevalent, incurable skeletal myopathy. The condition is linked to hypomethylation of the D4Z4 macrosatellite repeat at chromosome 4q35, leading to epigenetic derepression of the transcription factor DUX4; coupled with a permissive 4qA haplotype supplying a poly(A) signal. DUX4 may drive FSHD pathology via both induction of target genes and inhibition of the function of the myogenic master regulator PAX7. Biomarkers for FSHD have focused on DUX4 target gene expression. We have, however, reported that PAX7 target gene repression is a hallmark of FSHD skeletal muscle. Here we demonstrate that PAX7 target gene repression is an equivalent biomarker to DUX4 target gene expression when considering RNA-Sequencing data from magnetic resonance imaging-guided muscle biopsies. Moreover, PAX7 target gene repression correlates with active disease, independent to DUX4 target gene expression. PAX7 target genes are also repressed in RNA-Sequencing data from single cells, representing a significantly better biomarker of FSHD cells than DUX4 target gene expression. Importantly, PAX7 target gene repression is a significant biomarker in the majority of FSHD cells that are DUX4 target gene negative, and on which the DUX4 biomarker is indiscriminate. To facilitate the evaluation of validated biomarkers we provide a simple tool that outputs biomarker values from a normalized expression data matrix. In summary, PAX7 target gene repression in FSHD correlates with disease severity, independently of DUX4 target gene expression. At the single-cell level, PAX7 target gene repression can efficiently discriminate FSHD cells, even when no DUX4 target genes are detectable.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.