Targeting inflammation

Summary

A hormone called ghrelin, has many important roles in the body, including protecting motor neurons against death, reducing harmful inflammation and promoting appetite and weight gain. When a fatty molecule is added to the ghrelin hormone, it turns into acyl-ghrelin, which is then able to perform its important functions that protect neurons and reduce inflammation. On the other hand, the version of ghrelin that doesn't have a fatty molecule attached, unacyl-ghrelin, blocks the beneficial function of acyl-ghrelin which increases the harmful inflammation that is known to contribute to disease progression.

It has been shown that people with MND have lower levels of ghrelin in their blood, suggesting that ghrelin may have an important role to play in preventing motor neuron loss. Dr Davies and his team will investigate if stopping the production of the harmful version of ghrelin and increasing the levels of the beneficial version, will reduce toxic inflammation.

Why this research is important

If successful, this study will help us understand more about how ghrelin impacts blood immune cells in MND and could lead to potential new drug targets to treat MND.