This blog is part of the ‘Highlights from Glasgow’ collection of articles, where you can read about the content of some of the talks and posters presented at the 29th International Symposium on ALS/MND.

Around the globe, teams are working to find tissue biomarkers for MND and there some promising candidates coming through, some of which were explored at session 8C of the Symposium: Tissue Biomarkers.

We first heard from Rebekah Ahmed (C83), who presented her data on possible neuroendocrine and metabolic biomarkers. Ahmed and her team analysed several proteins related to these systems in the blood of 127 people with either MND or MND with FTD and compared them to controls. The Neuropeptide Y protein (NPY), which is related to eating habits and food intake, was found to be higher in people with MND and MND-FTD, and lower in people with FTD, shining the light on a possible biomarker. All patients also had an increase in leptin and insulin levels, highlighting the need to examine how these neuroendocrine changes affect underlying disease pathology.Read More »