Reading Time: 3 minutes Introduction A genetic change in the C9orf72 gene is the most common genetic cause of motor neurone disease (MND), accounting for 40%-50% of people with familial MND and 5%-10% of people with sporadic MND. This genetic change in C9orf72 can also lead to behavioural symptoms of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), in some people with MND (around…
Reading Time: 2 minutes Researchers from the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) at the University of Sheffield have uncovered a new function of the C9orf72 protein. A paper on their work has recently been published in the EMBO Journal. A change or mutation to the C9orf72 gene is linked to about 40% of cases of inherited MND. We…
Reading Time: 2 minutes We know that some people with MND will be affected by cognitive change and a small proportion of these will develop frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The symptoms of cognitive change include changes in planning and decision making. To help support people with MND who have these symptoms, and their families and carers, we need to firstly…
Reading Time: 2 minutes Some people with MND develop an increasingly recognised form of dementia, known as frontotemporal dementia or FTD (for more information visit http://www.ftdtalk.org/). The main symptoms of FTD include alterations in decision making, behaviour and difficulty with language. The relationship between MND and FTD is not well understood. Prof Julie Snowden and PhD student Jennie Saxon at…
Reading Time: 2 minutes Continuing the ‘gene hunting theme’ on from our last blog post on Project MinE, a recently published study has shed more light on the C9orf72 gene mutation. The C9orf72 gene mutation is the most common cause of the rare inherited form of MND (about 40% of all people with inherited MND have this mutation). Some…
Reading Time: 3 minutes The last of our FTD awareness week blog posts is focussing on a healthcare project looking into FTD (frontotemporal dementia) and FTD-MND (FTD when combined with MND). The project began last year and is being part-funded by us. Professor Julie Snowden and PhD student Jennie Adams at the Cerebral Function Unit in Salford (University of Manchester)…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Yesterday we published an introductory blog on frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and described how it is sometimes found in combination with MND. Today we are looking at a biomedical project on FTD and MND that we are funding. The project Dr Olaf Ansorge and Professor Kevin Talbot of Oxford University are leading a biomedical project aimed…
Reading Time: 3 minutes In addition to the muscle weakness and wasting, MND also presents with non-motor symptoms, one of the most common being cognitive change. Research has already shown that changes can occur to the nerve cells in the frontal and temporal lobe areas of the brain. These are the two areas which are responsible for controlling thinking, reasoning…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Association-funded researcher, Prof Julie Snowden from the University of Manchester was invited to present her research on MND and frontotemporal dementia at this year’s 25th International Symposium on ALS/MND. She is asking whether people living with MND and frontotemporal dementia develop a different form of dementia that is different to those with frontotemporal dementia alone.…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Dr Emma Devenney is an MND Association and Neuroscience Research Australia funded PhD student investigating the Cerebellum in MND and Frontotemporal Dementia at Neuroscience Research Australia. She is finding out what role it plays in the symptoms of patients with the C9orf72 mutation. Here she blogs about her work from Australia! Finally after more than 12…
