{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,14]],"date-time":"2026-10-14T04:14:05Z","timestamp":1791951245920,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"15","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,27]],"date-time":"2021-07-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1627344000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000894","name":"Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["N\/A"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["N\/A"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000894","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a motor neuron disease caused by insufficient levels of the survival motor neuron (SMN) protein. One of the most prominent pathological characteristics of SMA involves defects of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ), such as denervation and reduced clustering of acetylcholine receptors (AChRs). Recent studies suggest that upregulation of agrin, a crucial NMJ organizer promoting AChR clustering, can improve NMJ innervation and reduce muscle atrophy in the delta7 mouse model of SMA. To test whether the muscle-specific kinase (MuSK), part of the agrin receptor complex, also plays a beneficial role in SMA, we treated the delta7 SMA mice with an agonist antibody to MuSK. MuSK agonist antibody #13, which binds to the NMJ, significantly improved innervation and synaptic efficacy in denervation-vulnerable muscles. MuSK agonist antibody #13 also significantly increased the muscle cross-sectional area and myofiber numbers in these denervation-vulnerable muscles but not in denervation-resistant muscles. Although MuSK agonist antibody #13 did not affect the body weight, our study suggests that preservation of NMJ innervation by the activation of MuSK may serve as a complementary therapy to SMN-enhancing drugs to maximize the therapeutic effectiveness for all types of SMA patients.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms22158015","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,27]],"date-time":"2021-07-27T12:18:31Z","timestamp":1627388311000},"page":"8015","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":32,"title":["Activation of Muscle-Specific Kinase (MuSK) Reduces Neuromuscular Defects in the Delta7 Mouse Model of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA)"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"given":"Zhihua","family":"Feng","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Section of Neurobiology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Steven","family":"Lam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Section of Neurobiology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Elena-Marie Sandino","family":"Tenn","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Section of Neurobiology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Arundhati Sengupta","family":"Ghosh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neuroscience, Genentech, South San Francisco, CA 94080, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sarah","family":"Cantor","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neuroscience, Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, New York University, New York City, NY 10016, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7601-7034","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Wei","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neuroscience, Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, New York University, New York City, NY 10016, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Pei-Fen","family":"Yen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Section of Neurobiology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Karen S.","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation, P.O. Box 9214, Jackson, WY 83002, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Steven","family":"Burden","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neuroscience, Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, New York University, New York City, NY 10016, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sergey","family":"Paushkin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation, P.O. 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