Breakthrough brings hope to MND sufferers

RESEARCHERS have made a major breakthrough in the fight against motor neurone disease (MND) which slowly shuts down the body with the development of a new class of treatments.

The breakthrough may also help those with Parkinson’s disease or some of the most common forms of dementia.

A team at Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute is developing drugs to treat neurodegenerative disorders.

Animal studies have indicated the drugs could add up to 30-40 per cent to life expectancy, but would only have an effect after diagnosis.

“Although it is being done in a laboratory it is a strong indication that this will translate to people later on,” one of the lead researchers, Assoc Prof Seth Masters, said.

“We are optimistic that there might be some good ways to target this and have beneficial effects on patients in the longer run.

“It is not going to stop people getting sick, but we think it is going to afford them a lot longer and healthier lives once the disease has started.”

About one in 10,000 Australians will be struck by MND, with the average life expectancy just two years from diagnosis.

A misfiring immune response causes inflammation which destroys motor neurons, the nerve cells controlling the muscles needed to move, speak, swallow and breathe.

But, after using samples from MND patients to derive stem cells, the Melbourne team were able to grow motor neurons perfectly matching the patients’ own so they could track the progress of the disease and identify the pathways driving the damage.