Breakthrough Made in Cure for Motor Neurone Disease

Published: March 6, 2006 | 3694th good news item since 2003

A team of Irish researchers have made an important breakthrough in discovering a cure for motor neurone disease, it was revealed last week.

The team, led by Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital and the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI), has discovered that mutations in a protein called “angiogenin” are associated with motor neurone disease (MND).

Angiogenin are proteins that induces the growth of new blood vessels from existing blood vessels. This the first time that angiogenin has ever been associated with a condition within the brain or spinal cord and may therefore have real implications for a number of neurological diseases, according to the RCSI study.

Commenting on the research and the significance of the discovery for MND sufferers Dr Orla Hardiman said in a statement issued by the RCSI: “what we have found is another gene that causes MND. It is very exciting as it defines a whole new mechanism for the process of neuro-degeneration of MND and opens up a whole new therapeutic avenue for this and possibly other neuro-degenerative diseases.”

“It is a very exciting discovery which will hopefully pave the way for new therapies in MND, a tragic condition which strikes people in the prime of their lives and progresses fairly quickly to death.”

The discovery was welcomed by the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association (IMNDA), whose Chairwoman, Ms. Joan Boland, said in a statement that the news was great encouragement to patients suffering from MND and that this improved understanding into the cause of the disease would surely lead to new developments in treatment.

Eithne Frost, Founder Member and first CEO of IMNDA. Bernie Corr, Clinical Specialist Nurse in MND at Beaumont Hospital, and former Board member of IMNDA added that the discovery heralded a marvelous day for MND in Ireland.

“Our members have been extremely generous in their support of their Association over the years, and their participation has been key to this recent breakthrough,” they said.

“When MND runs in families it can be quite frightening. However, less than 10% of people with MND have the familial form. Most people with MND have never heard of the disease until they get it – but finding a gene that runs in families can provide an important breakthrough in our understanding of the disease”.

There are several types of motor neurone diseases, all of which destroy the body’s motor neurone cells that control voluntary muscle activity such as speaking, breathing and swallowing. It is a fatal neurological illness that strikes people in the prime of life. There is currently no known cure and life expectancy following diagnosis of the disease is three to five years.

Published in Science & Technology
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