An antibiotic decreases muscle degeneration in mice with a disorder resembling a type of muscular dystrophy that makes up about 10 percent of cases.

Barton-Davis, E.R. ... and H.L. Sweeney. 1999. Aminoglycoside antibiotics restore dystrophin function to skeletal muscles of mdx mice. Journal of Clinical Investigation 104(Aug. 15):375.

Bedwell, D.M., et al. 1997. Suppression of a CFTR premature stop mutation in a bronchial epithelial cell line. Nature Medicine 3(November):1280.

Howard, M., R.A. Frizzell, and D.M. Bedwell. 1996. Aminoglycoside antibiotics restore CFTR function by overcoming premature stop mutations. Nature Medicine 2(April):467.

David M. Bedwell
University of Alabama, Birmingham
Department of Microbiology
BBRB 432 Box 8
Birmingham, AL 35294-2170

H. Lee Sweeney
University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine
Department of Physiology
A700 Richards Building
3700 Hamilton Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104

From Science News, Vol. 156, No. 6, August 7, 1999, p. 84. Copyright © 1999, Science Service.