A window into muscle disease

Inclusion body myositis is a progressively debilitating muscle disease that currently has no cure. It primarily affects adults over 50, causing weakness in the legs and hands, and difficulty eating or walking. The combined phenotypical features of chronic inflammation and cell-intrinsic degeneration continue to puzzle both clinicians and researchers on the exact primary disease nature.

Now, new research from the Institute Born-Bunge and University of Antwerp sheds new light on its underlying biology. The results may inform new avenues for the development of potential treatments.

“Using advanced proteomics, we compared muscle samples from people with inclusion body myositis to those from healthy individuals,” says Dr. Willem De Ridder. “We discovered 627 proteins that were significantly altered in the disease, revealing key molecular patterns: chronic inflammation, disrupted energy metabolism, and impaired muscle regeneration. These findings offer a clearer picture of how inclusion body myositis affects the body at a cellular level.”

A particularly promising discovery was the role of KDM5A, a histone demethylase, which was found in elevated levels in regenerating muscle fibers of patients. In lab models, inhibiting KDM5A helped reduce toxic protein build-up, a finding that could inform future therapeutic strategies.

“This study is the result of years of dedicated work, made possible by access to fresh, well-characterized muscle tissue from patients through the IBB-NeuroBiobank,” says prof. Jonathan Baets. “To our knowledge, no proteomics dataset of this scale has previously been published for this condition. It underscores the unique value of biobanks like ours in enabling high-impact research into disease mechanisms.”

Congratulations to the entire research team at Institute Born-Bunge Institute, University of Antwerp, and Antwerp University Hospital as well as their collaborators at VIB-UAntwerpen, UCLouvain, Inserm Sorbonne, and Ghent University Hospital, on this important contribution to our understanding of inclusion body myositis.