• Question: can motor neurone disease be passed on through generations or does it just happen? and is science any closer to finding a cure or a way of preventing it? Thank you

    Asked by Molly to Amy, Craig, Laura, Partha, Saffron on 19 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Saffron Whitehead

      Saffron Whitehead answered on 19 Jun 2015:

      No it is not passed on through generations, ie hereditary although the development of this disease is likely to have a genetic component as do many other diseases.
      Treatment? Well I suppose we might look at stem cell therapy in thwe very long term and perhaps drugs but drugs cannot be developed until the cause is known!
      Hope this sort of answers your question

    • Photo: Laura Wales

      Laura Wales answered on 23 Jun 2015:

      Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is inherited in 5-10% of cases – there are genetic suceptibilities in other cases but environment plays a big role. It’s a horrible disease because the nerves are dead by the time symptoms appear so finding a cure is pretty difficult. In an ideal world, it needs to be caught early so we can find drugs to prevent further neuronal loss.

      I think it’s important to study people with genetic mutations and follow them to see what happens early in disease.

      Stems cells should help answer some questions and hopefully provide some sort of treatment in the future. It’s possible to “turn back the clock” on adult human skin cells, reprogramming them to turn back into embryonic-like stem cells that have the potential to generate neurones.

      As these stem cells are created without the use of embryos, the technique avoids the ethical issues surrounding stem cell research. These cells are called Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPS cells).

      Research scientists could therefore re-programme skin cells from people with the inherited form of MND and turn them into motor neurones and supporting cells. Because these neurones contain a genetic cause of MND, they will show characterstics of the disease. This could help us understand the underlying causes of MND and see how drugs could help.

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