US Defense backs WA MND research

Local scientists have won significant funding from the US military because its veterans are more likely to suffer from a debilitating motor neurone disease they are researching.

Perron Institute and Murdoch University's Centre for Molecular Medicine and Innovative Therapeutics, along with Victoria’s Florey Institute, have been granted $US500,000 ($760,000) over two years by the US Defense Department, to advance the knowledge of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, the most common form of motor neurone disease, notably the possibility of broadening the use of gene therapy.

Perron Institute senior research fellow Sarah Rea said studies of veterans from US and UK military have shown they are up to 50 per cent more likely to experience ALS which can progress rapidly from a loss of sensation in the extremities to complete paralysis.

Dr Rea, who is the principal investigator in the project, said the Australian population suffered from the disease at a higher rate than the rest of the world, with eight to 10 people per 100,000 dealing with the disease at any one time, compared to six people per 100,000 at a global level.

The scientist said that around 10 per cent of people inherited the disease but for the majority the cause was indeterminant.

In veterans, Dr Rea said that there were a number of things which were likely to contribute to increased risk of ALS such as environmental pollutants like heavy metals and defoliants, head injuries and smoking.

“There is no evidence to point to any one of these,” Dr Rea said.

The US Defense Department grant represents about half of the $1.5 million in funding that Dr Rea has across several projects as an investigator looking into motor neurone disease.

Apart from the Perron Institute itself, other significant funding comes from the state government and charitable organisation Racing for MNDi Foundation which backs genetic-based research to accelerate the treatment of motor neurone disease.

“Delivery into the central nervous system remains a critical problem for the development of effective neurodegenerative disease therapeutics, and as a collective team we now have three major grants allowing us to attack this issue from multiple avenues," Dr Rea said.

Dr Rea said the research was focused on using knowledge from the small proportion of inherited sufferers to create gene therapies that may be applicable to the majority with motor neurone disease where the cause is not known.

Already an approved genetic therapy is available to tackle the disease in about 2 per cent of cases.

The researchers hope to identify more molecular markers for which therapies can be devised to regulate various gene activity, including in those sufferers where the cause is unknown.

Co-investigators in the study are Dr Loren Flynn, professor Anthony Akkari and associate professor Rakesh Veedu from the Perron Institute and CMMIT, professor Sue Fletcher  from Murdoch University, and professor Brad Turner from Florey Institute. PhD candidate Yuval Gurfinkel from UWA is also involved.