Motor Neurone Disease is a devastating killer that strikes down five people every day in the U.K. MND is a disease that affects the central nervous system, causing nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord to die, thus destroying the transmitters that relay impulses from the brain to specific muscles in the body. Around fifty percent of the patients with MND have died within three years of the first diagnosis.
A new study, funded by the Motor Neurone Association and carried out by a team of researchers led by Sir Ian Wilmut of Edinburgh, has found a way to infect normal cells with those carrying the disease. The cells are grown in Petri dishes instead of in a living human body, allowing them to be studied in ways that have never been possible before.
The scientists were focusing on a specific gene mutation known as TDP-43, which has been directly linked to the disease in that the proteins it produces have been found in the brains of 90 percent of patients with MND.
Through the use of new stem cell technology, a ‘manufactured’ cell called an induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell can be made to reproduce in laboratory conditions so that the progress of the disease can be closely studied and drugs that may delay or stop its progress can be tested.
While much more study and research will be necessary, the hope is that the breakthrough may ultimately lead to a cure for this deadly disease.
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