Vla-4 as a biomarker for prognosis and target for therapy in duchenne muscular dystrophy

A method for determining the prognosis of a subject affected with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, comprising the steps of

• i) obtaining a blood sample from said subject;
• ii) determining a level of VLA-4high T cells in the blood sample;
• iii) comparing the level of VLA-4high T lymphocytes in the blood sample with a predetermined value, and
• iv) concluding that said subject has a poor prognosis when the level of VLA-4high T cells in the blood sample is greater than the predetermined value.

A method for determining the prognosis of a subject affected with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy comprising the steps of

• obtaining a biological sample from the subject;
• and
• analyzing the biological sample using one or both of the following steps:
• i) detecting the presence of a mutation in one or both of a) a gene encoding CD49d (alpha4 integrin chain) of VLA-4 and b) a gene encoding CD29 (beta-1 integrinn chain) of VLA-4;
• and
• ii) analyzing the expression of one or both of a) a gene encoding CD49d (alpha4 integrin chain) of VLA-4 and b) a gene encoding CD29 (beta-1 integrinn chain) of VLA-4.