Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
As the rates of a once-rare neurological disease increase, it is hoped Australia’s first combined institute and clinic focusing on brain diseases will help find an effective treatment.
Macquarie University on Monday will launch its Brain Institute and Clinic to bring together researchers and clinicians who specialise in motor neurone disease with the aim of understanding where it comes from and how to treat it.
MND impacts parts of a person’s brain and neurons that control their muscles, leading to progressive weakness and eventual paralysis.
It can affect adults of any age and most cases are not genetic.
Macquarie University deputy vice chancellor Patrick McNeil noted there was still no effective cure for the deadly disease, despite it becoming increasingly common.
The purpose of the institute was to find treatments and deliver them to patients more quickly, he said.
“It typically takes an average of 17 years between when an important research discovery is made … and when that is implemented in the clinic,” Dr McNeill told AAP.
“When you have integrated research and clinical institutions, that journey is shortened.”
Earlier in September, NSW became the first jurisdiction in the world to make MND notifiable, meaning medical professionals are now legally required to tell the government about cases.
Dr McNeil said he hoped the decision would help researchers understand more about the cause.
“It would be good if the other states follow because that is the way that you can find if there is an environmental agent,” he said.
“Because what we have been seeing anecdotally is these clusters of cases that seem to be more frequent in a particular town or region than you would expect.”
Dominic Rowe, who heads up Macquarie’s Neurology Clinic, said 800 Australians would die from the disease this year.
“But I actually disagree with using the term die, motor neuron disease kills you,” he said.
“We need to redouble our efforts into working out why so we can fix it.”
The facility will also do research and treatment around Parkinson’s disease and dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
Macquarie University professor James Burrell said he was hopeful experts could build on recent breakthroughs in dementia treatment.
He said there were therapies available that slowed the physical progression of dementia caused by Alzheimer’s.
“We now have disease modifying therapies for this disease and this gives me tremendous hope that we can identify disease modifying therapies for other neurodegenerative diseases as well,” Professor Burrell said.
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