PLS3 and proximal spinal muscular atrophy: PLS3 overexpression (OE) has been extensively demonstrated to be a protective modifier for the devastating neurodegenerative disorder spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in humans and numerous SMA models (Oprea et al., 2008; Dimitriadi et al., 2010; Hao Le et al., 2012; Ackermann et al., 2013; Hosseinibarkooie et al., 2016; Kaifer et al., 2017).