Investigations of compensatory synaptic plasticity in the spinal cord in MND / ALS

Description:

What this research means to you: This project will study the way that the nervous system attempts to compensate for the loss of motor neurones in the early stages of MND. The investigation of these compensatory processes and how they can be encouraged is one approach to finding drugs that could help keep the effects of MND at bay.

The researcher explains in more detail: “In the early stages of MND before symptoms appear it is known that the body compensates for the loss of motor neurones. In this project we will continue our research into this process, known as compensatory re-innervation. The project will use a mouse model of MND to investigate the ability of surviving spinal motor neurones to restore nerve supply after it has been lost.
We have already identified the presence of a nerve growth promoting protein in the spinal cords of mice that model MND, suggesting that new nerve fibres are growing. We have also found a unique type of nerve connection, which enlarges the number of surviving motor neurones it contacts with in humans with MND and in the mouse model, reflecting compensatory activity. However, compensation occurs alongside disease-induced release of substances that block nerve growth (for example, a blocker called NOGO). To redress the current lack of information on the relationship between motor neurone death, reinnervation, and inhibition of nerve growth, we will use a variety of techniques in the mouse model to: (1) investigate the time course and extent of compensatory activity, (2) determine the relationship between compensatory activity and blocking of nerve re-growth and (3) test therapeutic strategies for unblocking motor neurone growth.
The ultimate aim is to identify ways of encouraging re-innervation in surviving motor neurones, which will complement treatments aiming to slow down motor neurone death."

The Institute of Neurology web page