Flinders Medical Centre researchers, in collaboration with two Canadian research teams, have developed a ground-breaking treatment which has the potential to significantly extend the healthy life of a Motor Neuron Disease sufferer.

Motor Neuron Disease, also called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease which causes the death of motor nerve cells (also called neurons) within the spinal cord and brain that are responsible for controlling muscle movement.

It results in creeping paralysis, and with no effective treatment available to reverse or halt the disease most patients only live an average of 2-3 years after diagnosis.

Emeritus Professor Robert Rush and his team  from the Department of Human Physiology at Flinders Medical Centre have successfully demonstrated a new antibody therapy that can extend the lives of mice with Motor Neuron Disease by up to 20 per cent.

This research has been supported in part by donations made to the Flinders Medical Centre Foundation.

"This new potential treatment has now been shown to work in two separate experiments using a mouse model that closely resembles the human disease," Professor Rush said.

"In human terms this could translate to an extra 10 healthy years for a Motor Neuron Disease sufferer if the treatment is given in the early stages of the disease." 

The treatment has been developed in collaboration with researchers from Canada's Magill University and the University of British Colombia. It is based on using a particular protein called an antibody to bind to a target on the motor nerves.  The antibody causes signalling within the cell that overrides the degeneration.

It has been shown in the mice to prevent the onset of a number of the symptoms of Motor Neuron Disease such as muscular weakness, and to prevent further degeneration of the motor neuron nerve cells in the spinal cord.

The research teams are currently seeking a suitable pharmaceutical company to help translate these findings into clinical trials next year.