New research reveals clues behind the breakdown of brain cell connections in MND
Oct 2022: Our researchers have developed a dataset that describes hundreds of changes to the brain cell connections in people with MND.
Euan MacDonald Centre researcher Dr. Chris Henstridge from the University of Dundee has led new research studying the changes in connection points between brain cells, known as synapses.
Synapses break down in the early stages of MND and understanding why could reveal new ways to treat the disease. To try to understand what happens to synapses in MND, Dr. Henstridge’s team performed experiments using donated human brain samples to discover the differences between synapses from people who lived with MND and those who did not.
The researchers discovered important differences in the synapses from people who lived with MND and are now working on new experiments to unpick the processes behind these changes. By doing this, Dr. Henstridge’s team hope to discover new ways to treat MND at its earliest stages.
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.
This work has been published by Acta Neuropathologica Communications. It was funded by MND Scotland.
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