Washington: Researchers have investigated why the progression of motor neurone disease following onset of symptoms varies in speed, even in the presence of a known genetic cause of the condition.
MND is an incurable disease destroying the body’s cells which control movement causing progressive disability. Present treatment options for those with MND only have a modest effect in improving the patient’s quality of life.
Professor Pamela Shaw, Director of SITraN, and her research team worked in collaboration with a fellow world leading MND scientist Dr Caterina Bendotti and her group at the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, Italy investigated two mouse models of MND caused by an alteration in the SOD1 gene, a known cause of MND in humans.
One of the strains had a rapidly progressing disease course and the other a much slower change in the symptoms of MND.
The teams from Sheffield and Milan looked at the factors which might explain the differences observed in speed and severity in the progression of the disease.
The study revealed new evidence, at the point of onset of the disease, before muscle weakness was observed, showing key differences in major molecular pathways and the way the protective systems of the body responded, between the profiles of the rapid progressing and slow progressing mouse models.
The research has been published in the scientific journal Brain. (ANI)