Tag: microglia

It’s not just about the neurones

Dr Brian Dickie3 Comments

Long before the latest wave of cellular and molecular biology advances started to give us new information on what was going on at the cellular level in MND, some doctors had observed that if the disease started in one particular part of the body, it would be neighbouring parts that became affected next.  This suggested that the disease usually starts in a single part of the brain or spinal cord before spreading further, like ripples in a pond.

How this happens is not well understood. It is likely that there are a number of processes going on, but they can broadly be divided into two theories. One of these is that damaged proteins can leak out of sick neurons and ‘infect’ their neighbours – a subject we have discussed at previous international Symposia.Read More »

Funding for Gut-sy MND research announced

Belinda Cupid6 Comments

Yesterday the Reta Lila Weston Trust announced that they will be funding Dr Nikhil Sharma and colleagues at the Leonard Wolfson Experimental Neurology Centre (LWENC) to investigate whether the bacteria that live in our guts could alter the progression of MND. The grant is for £1.2 million over a period of four years. The LWENC is run jointly by the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN) and University College London (UCL).

Incredibly, researchers have found a link between the bacteria that live in our guts and important cells called microglia. We know that microglia help regulate the function of the motor neurones. This study aims to find out whether the balance of gut bacteria in MND could be linked to changes in microglia.Read More »

Promising news for keeping the motor neurone neighbourhood safe

Belinda CupidLeave a comment

There was standing room only in the first of the dedicated scientific sessions of the Symposium last week. All had gathered to hear Prof Stan Appel inform them of the latest chapter of this story on the role of inflammation in MND.

Listening to his presentation I got the gist of the overall positive message – a real step forward in MND research – but to report in any more detail of how and why was a step too far for my brain when I was in Sydney! Reading through my notes when I got back to the office, I was determined to get to the bottom of this science. It helped me to write a non-technical summary of it as I went. It’s perhaps a bit more technical than our normal blog posts – but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to (try and) share my new found knowledge. So here goes:

Inflammation is one response of the immune system. The immune system is a community of cells that exist within your body to protect it from damage and to maintain its status quo. Given its important function, it is perhaps reassuring to know that how it works is mind-blowingly complex!

In the brain and spinal cord, a slightly different defence system exists in comparison to the rest of the body. It is now common knowledge that motor neurones are surrounded by cells that support their function – known as glial cells. Within the community of these glial cells there are ‘police’ cells called microglia. Prof Appel’s lab has contributed many elegant studies to a consensus of research showing that in MND these police cells operate a delicate balance between protecting the environment around motor neurones and triggering a toxic atmosphere. Gradually the toxic atmosphere prevails.

In Sydney, Prof Appel discussed another component of this defence system, ‘regulator T-cells’. Continuing the police analogy, T-cells patrol the blood, rather than the brain and spinal cord tissue of microglia. As their name suggests, regulator T cells regulate the response rate of removing toxins and maintaining a healthy environment, in particular they regulate microglia by sending out specific chemical signals.

Prof Appel wanted to know how the interaction of T-cells with microglia is affected in MND. He found that a large ‘police presence’ (or high numbers) of regulator T-cells influence microglia to maintain their protection of motor neurones. In other words, large numbers of regulator T-cells kept motor neurone death at low level, showing itself as a slower phase of disease progression. As the levels of regulator T-cells get lower, the microglia turn toxic and the rate of progression of the disease speeds up. These conclusions were based on studies in mice models of MND and in patients at different stages of MND – by analysing blood samples for the presence of regulator T-cells and comparing this with what they knew of their symptoms.

This information presents two opportunities to MND researchers – firstly if therapies can be developed to maintain the levels of these regulator T-cells they may slow down the disease; and in the meantime, chemical markers in the blood, used in these studies, may be a valuable biomarker to measure the rate of progression.