New dataset could reveal effective methods of treating MND

An MND Scotland funded project has led to the development of a new resource for MND researchers – a dataset describing hundreds of changes to the connections between brain cells in people with motor neuron disease (MND).

In 2016, Dr Chris Henstridge (then at the University of Edinburgh but now at the University of Dundee) was awarded £213,400 from MND Scotland for a research project that sought to study the changes in proteins present in the points of connection between brain cells, known as synapses.

Synapses break down in the early stages of MND and understanding why this occurs could reveal new ways to treat the disease.

MND is a rapidly progressing terminal illness, which stops signals from the brain reaching the muscles. This can cause someone to lose the ability to walk, talk, eat, drink or breathe unaided and the average life expectancy is just 18 months from diagnosis.

This study has led to the generation of a vast dataset that describes how the human synapse changes in MND, and this can be accessed by anyone to use for their own future research.

MND Scotland hopes this new resource and the resulting experiments will provide an important new tool for furthering MND research and contribute to the development of effective treatments.

To understand what happens to synapses in MND, Chris’ team undertook experiments using donated human brain samples. They compared the proteins present in synapses in brain tissue from people who lived with MND and those who did not, which revealed important differences in 500 proteins.

Dr Chris Henstridge said: “We have generated an incredible dataset describing human synapse changes in MND, which is being made freely available for anyone to use for their own future research. We hope this will have an important impact on the field of MND research and result in new ways to treat the disease.”

Researchers are now working on new experiments to understand the processes behind these changes and, in doing so, they hope to discover new ways to treat MND at its earliest stages.

Dr Jane Haley, MND Scotland’s Director of Research said: “MND Scotland is committed to finding a treatment for MND so we are delighted that research we have funded has resulted in an exciting new resource that will benefit researchers worldwide. This has only been made possible by many generous donations from our supporters and we are very grateful.”

To find out more information about this study, the scientific publication can be read in full here.

Help to fund vital research projects by making a donation here and for more ways to support people across Scotland affected by MND, please visit us here.