An international team of researchers led by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Dublin's Beaumont Hospital has made a significant discovery in relation to one of the causes of motor neurone disease, a disease which kills one person in Ireland every three days.
The researchers have discovered that a gene found in the gut, which up to now was not known to have anything to do with the central nervous system, actually plays a role in causing motor neurone disease. They have also found that mutations in this ANG gene can run in families and are the likely cause of the disease in some patients.
The finding is being seen by neurologists as a significant leap forward in understanding the disease and the search for its cure. Dr Orla Hardiman, a consultant neurologist at Beaumont Hospital and one of the research team, said: "We have found a new gene that has not previously been associated with motor neurone disease."
There were probably a number of different causes for motor neurone disease, she added. "Some causes are genetically determined and of the genetically determined ones, the identification of individual genes can help us understand how the disease occurs in all patients."
The study was the largest of its kind, with more than 1,600 DNA samples from motor neurone disease patients and a similar number of non-affected individuals studied.
Highly debilitating, motor neurone disease attacks the brain and spinal cord. It strikes people in the prime of their lives and progresses quickly to death. There is no known cure and life expectancy following diagnosis is just three to five years. It is estimated that up to 250 people in Ireland have the disease.
The research, which was partly funded by the Health Research Board, was published on line yesterday in the journal Nature Genetics.