DeCure's autonomous Rare AI scientist is researching a drug-repurposing hypothesis for congenital structural myopathy — screening already-approved drugs against its 1-gene Open Targets disease module to publish open-access research. Research is fast; the path to publication is funded in milestone stages.
Disease moduleCongenital structural myopathy maps to a 1-gene Open Targets module — the target space DeCure's AI scientist screens approved drugs against.
DeCure.ai methodSignature reversal (LINCS) plus network proximity (STRING) rank already-approved drugs likely to perturb this module — the same engine that produces DeCure.ai's repurposing hypotheses.
Repurposing thesisScreening approved medicines against this disease module, then publishing the evidence for the strongest candidate. Known pharmacology and human exposure data make the first question sharper — they do not establish safety or efficacy in a new indication.
Research record
01
ResearchComing soon
Candidate research + dossier — target rationale, drug-repurposing thesis and evidence pack.proof: Published dossier + on-chain hash
02
ValidationComing soon
In-vitro biological validation at a contract research org (CRO).proof: CRO contract + in-vitro report
03
Peer review & paperComing soon
Peer-reviewed paper published open-access (preprint + journal).proof: DOI + open-access link + on-chain hash
Current lead
No approved-drug candidate for congenital structural myopathy is corroborated in the literature DeepSearch retrieved. Some conditions are managed with non-pharmacological care — a device, surgery or physical therapy — rather than a medicine; that may be the case here, or the literature we found may simply be too sparse yet to support a drug-repurposing angle.
Molecular view
nebulin (NEB) — NEB is one of the genes genetically linked to this disease in Open Targets — shown as context, not as a drug target we're pursuing: no approved-drug candidate for this disease is yet corroborated in the literature we found.
Loading structure…
helix sheet apo structuredrag to rotate · scroll to zoom
RCSB Protein Data Bank · entry 6Y17 · 1.56 Å · ligand none (apo structure). Experimental structure, not a prediction.
What the evidence adds up to
The 1994 and 2007 reviews describe congenital myopathies as a group of conditions defined by clinical and morphological criteria, with no specific drug treatments mentioned. The 2007 review notes that by that year, genes had been discovered for some congenital myopathies for the first time, and that increased understanding of pathobiology "should ultimately lead to effective treatments," but no such treatments are reported in the abstract.
The 2022 review of conventional therapy for hereditary myopathies lists seven broad pharmacological approaches that are either used or undergoing clinical trials across all myopathy types: inotropic, anti-inflammatory, and antifibrotic drugs; antimyostatin therapy; drugs that promote translation through stop codons; metabolic drugs and cofactors; mitochondrial biogenesis stimulators; and antioxidants. It also states that the recombinant drugs alglucosidase and avalglucosidase have been clinically approved for replacement therapy in Pompe’s disease, a metabolic myopathy, not for congenital structural myopathy. No drug is reported as having been tested or approved specifically for congenital structural myopathy in any of the three abstracts.
What is still missing is any clinical trial data for a drug specifically targeting congenital structural myopathy, a clear patient stratification by the many genetic subtypes described in the 2007 review, and the funding needed to move from gene discovery and pathobiology understanding to a tested therapy.
Evidence
Retrieved by DeepSearch across 234,678,978 indexed works and resolved on OpenAlex — ranked by citations, including the results that did not work.
Muscle & Nerve · 1994 · 52 citations
Congenital myopathies
AbstractSeveral dozen congenital myopathies are defined by clinical and morphological criteria. The application of the current generation of scientific techniques including immunohistochemistry and molecular genetics has resulted in the expansion of our knowledge and understanding of the well-established conditions including central core myopathy and centronuclear/myotubular myopathy and allowed greater understanding of the interrelationships of some of the less common or less well-established conditions. In the near future molecular genetics may allow the identification of the specific gene defect in many of these diseases. This article reviews the major congenital myopathies and presents some of the information gained by application of new technology to these conditions.
Current Opinion in Neurology · 2007 · 45 citations
Congenital myopathies
AbstractPURPOSE OF REVIEW: The aim of this review is to provide an up-to-date personal analysis of current congenital myopathy research. RECENT FINDINGS: In the past year novel congenital myopathies have been suggested, genes have been discovered for some of the congenital myopathies for the first time (beta-tropomyosin in cap disease and perhaps skeletal muscle alpha-actin in Zebra body myopathy), further genes have been identified for congenital myopathies where other genes had already been found (cofilin in nemaline myopathy, selenoprotein N in congenital fibre type disproportion) and recessive myosin storage myopathy was associated with homozygous mutation of slow-skeletal/beta-cardiac myosin which was already known to be mutated in dominant myosin storage myopathy. There has been further clarification of the pathobiology of the congenital myopathies, including determination of the basis of epigenetic effects: silencing of the normal allele in recessive central core disease and persistence of cardiac (fetal) alpha-actin in nemaline myopathy patients with no skeletal actin. SUMMARY: The increased understanding of the genes and pathobiology of the congenital myopathies that is developing should ultimately lead to effective treatments.
CONVENTIONAL APPROACHES TO THE THERAPY OF HEREDITARY MYOPATHIES
AbstractThe aim of the work was to analyze the available therapeutic options for the conventional therapy of hereditary myopathies. Materials and methods. When searching for the material for writing a review article, such abstract databases as PubMed and Google Scholar were used. The search was carried out on the publications during the period from 1980 to September 2022. The following words and their combinations were selected as parameters for the literature selection: “myopathy”, “Duchenne”, “myodystrophy”, “metabolic”, “mitochondrial”, “congenital”, “symptoms”, “replacement”, “recombinant”, “corticosteroids”, “vitamins”, “tirasemtiv”, “therapy”, “treatment”, “evidence”, “clinical trials”, “patients”, “dichloracetate”. Results. Congenital myopathies are a heterogeneous group of pathologies that are caused by atrophy and degeneration of muscle fibers due to mutations in genes. Based on a number of clinical and pathogenetic features, hereditary myopathies are divided into: 1) congenital myopathies; 2) muscular dystrophy; 3) mitochondrial and 4) metabolic myopathies. At the same time, treatment approaches vary significantly depending on the type of myopathy and can be based on 1) substitution of the mutant protein; 2) an increase in its expression; 3) stimulation of the internal compensatory pathways expression; 4) restoration of the compounds balance associated with the mutant protein function (for enzymes); 5) impact on the mitochondrial function (with metabolic and mitochondrial myopathies); 6) reduction of inflammation and fibrosis (with muscular dystrophies); as well as 7) an increase in muscle mass and strength. The current review presents current data on each of the listed approaches, as well as specific pharmacological agents with a description of their action mechanisms. Conclusion. Currently, the following pharmacological groups are used or undergoing clinical trials for the treatment of various myopathies types: inotropic, anti-inflammatory and antifibrotic drugs, antimyostatin therapy and the drugs that promote translation through stop codons (applicable for nonsense mutations). In addition, metabolic drugs, metabolic enzyme cofactors, mitochondrial biogenesis stimulators, and antioxidants can be used to treat myopathies. Finally, the recombinant drugs alglucosidase and avalglucosidase have been clinically approved for the replacement therapy of metabolic myopathies (Pompe’s disease).
Disease module: DeepOracle (Open Targets). Structures: RDKit from PubChem SMILES. Literature: retrieved by DeepSearch across 234,678,978 indexed works (targeted per-candidate search), resolved on OpenAlex.
DeCure is a research and publication project, not medical advice and not a treatment. "DeCure for X" describes a research goal, not a claim that a cure exists. Backing a cure is a contribution to fund the research — it is not an investment, and confers no yield, royalty, equity or IP ownership. Papers are published open-access by the DeCure.ai DAO.
