MBNL1 and myotonic dystrophy type 1: To test whether the MBNL protein released by the compounds was sufficient to exert a therapeutic effect in vivo, we used transgenic flies that express non-coding 480 CTG repeat RNA throughout their musculature and thus, reproduce DM1-like phenotypes, chiefly muscle atrophy and locomotion defects (Bargiela et al. [39] and unpublished observations).