Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Spinal muscular atrophy — the dawning of a new era

  • Comment
  • Published:

From Nature Reviews Neurology

View current issue Sign up to alerts

The introduction of therapies for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) has rapidly changed the clinical landscape, transforming SMA from a lethal to a treatable disease. This transformation has driven further advances, from population screening imperatives to novel treatment delivery approaches, while uncovering health disparities and fuelling debate regarding drug pricing.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1: The evolving landscape of spinal muscular atrophy.

References

  1. Coovert, D. D. et al. The survival motor neuron protein in spinal muscular atrophy. Hum. Mol. Genet. 6, 1205–1214 (1997).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Finkel, R. S. et al. Nusinersen versus sham control in infantile-onset spinal muscular atrophy. N. Engl. J. Med. 377, 1723–1732 (2017).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health. Nusinersen. CADTH, https://www.cadth.ca/nusinersen (2017).

  4. World Health Organization. Improving the transparency of markets for medicines, vaccines, and other health products. WHO, https://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA72/A72_ACONF2Rev1-en.pdf (2019).

  5. Powell, T. & O’Donnell, M. NICE appraisals of rare disease. House of Commons Library, https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CDP-2019-0022/CDP-2019-0022.pdf (2019).

  6. De Vivo, D. C. et al. Nusinersen initiated in infants during the presymptomatic stage of spinal muscular atrophy: interim efficacy and safety results from the phase 2 NURTURE study. Neuromuscul. Disord. 29, 842–856 (2019).

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Kariyawasam, D. S. T., Russell, J. S., Wiley, V., Alexander, I. E. & Farrar, M. A. The implementation of newborn screening for spinal muscular atrophy: the Australian experience. Genet. Med. 22, 557–565 (2020).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Glascock, J. et al. Revised recommendations for the treatment of infants diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy via newborn screening who have 4 copies of SMN2. J Neuromuscul. Dis. 7, 97–100 (2020).

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Beauchamp, K. A., Johansen Taber, K. A. & Muzzey, D. Clinical impact and cost-effectiveness of a 176-condition expanded carrier screen. Genet. Med. 21, 1948–1957 (2019).

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Kariyawasam, D., Alexander, I. E., Kurian, M. & Farrar, M. A. Great expectations: virus-mediated gene therapy in neurological disorders. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 91, 849–860 (2020).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

M.A.F. was supported by a Motor Neurone Diseases Research Institute of Australia Innovator Grant (1G 1916). M.C.K. was supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) Practitioner Fellowship (1156093). Funding from the NHMRC Program Grant (#1132524), Dementia Research Team Grant (#1095127) and Partnership Project (1153439) are gratefully acknowledged.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michelle A. Farrar.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

M.A.F. has received compensation as a member of the scientific advisory boards for Biogen, Roche and AveXis. These bodies had no role in the design or preparation of the article or decision to publish. M.C.K. is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry (BMJ Publishers, UK).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Farrar, M.A., Kiernan, M.C. Spinal muscular atrophy — the dawning of a new era. Nat Rev Neurol 16, 593–594 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-020-00410-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-020-00410-7

  • Springer Nature Limited

This article is cited by

Navigation