The ‘great hope’ for MND: Melbourne researchers make promising breakthrough

Melbourne researchers are working on a promising new class of treatments which may be able to give people with Motor Neuron Disease (MND) another 10 years of life.

Researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have been working on the treatments which they think will dramatically slow the progression of the disease.

The team discovered how inflammation in MND is triggered, and found by blocking an immune sensor they could prevent much of that inflammation in cells.

Associate Professor Seth Masters, from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, says the treatments are still in the pre-clinical stage, but are “a really great achievement”.

“We are still in the pre-clinical setting but there is great hope,” he told Ross and Russel.

“It is not going to be a cure, but we’re really hopeful that all our preliminary testing evidence is that they are going to dramatically slow the progress of the disease.

“Often the outcome after diagnosis is only a short period of one to five years of life.”

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