This is in line with previous studies demonstrating a glial activation in SMA patients’ spinal cords (Brock and McIlwain, 1984; Kuru et al., 2009) where astrocyte-specific SMN restoration resulted in IL-1 β and IL-6 cytokine decrease (Rindt et al., 2015). Here, IL6 is linked to proximal spinal muscular atrophy.