Wednesday 9th December - Centre Researcher ALS Symposium Presentations

The following pieces of research are being presented today as academic posters to registered participants at the MNDA Virtual International Symposium on ALS between 5.10pm and 5.50pm. The full event is running from Wednesday 9th - Friday 11th December. 

A systematic review of neuropsychiatric and cognitive assessments used in clinical trials for ALS.

Presented by Emily Beswick

Authors: Emily Beswick, Charis Wong, Juan Larraz , Arpan Mehta, Rachel Dakin, Siddharthan Chandran, Judy Newton, Alan Carson, Sharon Abrahams and Suvankar Pal

Cognitive impairment and mental health symptoms are experienced by many people with ALS. Historically, clinical trials have focussed on the effect of drugs on physical symptoms and the importance of cognitive impairment and mental health has frequently been neglected. Whilst the researchers acknowledge that trials must focus on physical symptoms, they recommend that future trials also consider how these drugs affect the broader range of ALS symptoms, including cognition and mental health.

Change over time and impact of apathy in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Presented by Dr Ratko Radakovic

Authors: Ratko Radakovic, Debbie Gray, Kaitlin Dudley, Ana Paula Trucco, Allan Brigola, Eneida Mioshi, Helen Copsey, David Dick, Judith Newton, Shuna Colville, Suvankar Pal, Siddharthan Chandran, Zachary Simmons and Sharon Abrahams

Apathy is the most common behaviour problem that occurs in people with ALS. This follow-up study shows how specific apathy subtypes change across time impact quality of life of people with ALS and the wellbeing of their caregivers/family members.

Mapping the landscape of TDP-43 aggregation in ALS at the nanoscopic-scale

Presented by Owen Kantelberg

Authors: Owen Kantelberg, Elsa Zacco, Alex Armaos, Fernando Cid, Edoardo Milanetti, Francesco Panei, Toria Twiddy, Jenna Gregory, Siddharthan Chandran, Annalisa Pastore, Gian Gaetano Tartaglia, Mathew Horrocks

This project aims to develop aptamers as imaging tools that allow for unprecedented detail in TDP-43 aggregate detection and imaging. We apply these methods to study TDP-43 aggregates in highly patient-relevant samples such as human tissue samples and patient derived stem cell models.  It is hoped that these methods will not only allow the detailed study of TDP-43’s mislocalisation and aggregation, but also show how TDP-43 aggregates induce toxicity and how they interact with and disrupt cellular processes.

Unique inflammatory transcriptional profiles distinguish long from short disease duration ALS

Presented by Dr Elizabeth Elliott

Authors: Elizabeth Elliott, Jenna Gregory, Owen Dando, Karina McDade, Colin Smith, Siddharthan Chandaran.

We have used cutting-edge technology to genetically profile motor cortex tissue samples donated by pwMND across very long and short disease durations. We found that genes involved in inflammatory and immune responses were increased in the long survival group, linked with specific cell types such as the care-taker cells which surround neurones and also cells lining blood vessels.

Based on these findings, we are now investigating how these specific genes and the proteins they produce differ according to disease duration by staining and further characterising them under the microscope.