Brogidirsen and Exon 44 Skipping for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: Advances and Challenges in RNA-Based Therapy

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a severe inherited muscle-wasting disorder associated with severe morbidity and mortality globally. Current treatment options have improved the quality of life of patients, but these treatments are only palliative. There is a need for more DMD treatment options. Antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapies have emerged as a promising personalized treatment option for patient groups who possess specific mutations. A subset of these therapies can skip over frame disrupting exons in the DMD gene and can partially restore dystrophin production for individuals with DMD. One novel exon skipping therapy currently being investigated is brogidirsen, an exon 44 targeting ASO using a novel dual-targeting approach. This article will provide an overview of brogidirsen’s history and current clinical trial developments. It will summarize how this investigational therapy compares with other pre-clinical and clinical trial-stage ASO therapies targeting exon 44. Current advances and challenges faced by RNA-based therapies will also be discussed. Overall, brogidirsen is a promising potential addition to existing DMD treatment options, with its clinical trial results showing expression levels above that of the maximum amount of dystrophin expression achieved by current FDA and EMA-approved exon-skipping DMD therapies. Further research will be needed to determine its overall efficacy and ability to overcome the known limitations faced by other existing ASO therapies.