The Medical Research Council (MRC) has awarded a neuroscience institute at the University of Sheffield £1.6 million, in order to advance the development of a drug that could help treat motor neuron disease (MND).
Motor neuron disease – also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) affects around 5,000 people in the UK and 450,000 people globally. It disturbs the nerves in the brain and spinal cord that form the connection between the nervous system and muscles to enable movement of the body. There is currently no cure or treatment for the disease.
The University of Sheffield’s Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) is partnered with Aclipse Therapeutics to advance the translational development of M102. M102 is a drug that has the potential to slow down the progression of MND.
Professor Dame Pamela Shaw, Director of SITraN, said: “This funding award from the MRC is wonderful news for MND patients who are in desperate need of an effective therapy to address this life-threatening neurodegenerative disease.”
SITRaN researchers discovered the neuroprotective properties of M102 in 2013. M102 activates NRF2 (nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2) and HSF1 (Heat shock factor 1) signalling pathways, which can work together to protect motor neurons from damage.
Principal investigator on the project, Dr Richard Mead, said: “M102 has the potential to significantly slow down the disease progression in both familial and sporadic MND patients.”
“The MRC grant will allow us to develop patient stratification biomarkers that will be applied in the M102 clinical studies, potentially enabling a personalised medicine approach in MND. This means that we can identify those who do and do not respond to M102 so we can target the treatment at those MND patients who are most likely to benefit.”
The £1.6 million grant from the MRC follows on from a $700,000 drug development grant given to SITraN from Australian charity FightMND in September last year.
CEO of Aclipse Therapeutics, Raymond K Houck, said: “The MRC award accelerates M102’s development into its first in-human clinical studies and validates M102’s biology and potential for a precision medicine approach for the treatment of MND.”
This is an exciting step to finding an effective treatment to halt the progression of this disease.