U.K. Shells Out $96M For Parkinson's, Immune System Therapies Research
The U.K.’s Medical Research Council (MRC) will invest $96M in research over the next three years as part of its Experimental Research Challenge. $9.6M has already been awarded to three projects that will set out to study Parkinson’s disease, reduced immunity in senior citizens, and specific mechanisms of addiction, pharmaphorum reports.
These new projects represent the second round of funding for a program which launched in 2010. According to the MRC, applicants for these grants must be suitably ambitious, focused upon disease in humans, and represent a substantial gap in current research.
The MRC’s guidelines articulate that “the studies will produce major new mechanistic insights into human disease, with potential application to new therapeutic approaches and opportunities for ‘reverse translation’ to more basic research.”
Sir John Savill, Chief Executive of the MRC, emphasizes the importance of human-focused studies saying that animal and molecular research can only carry us so far. “Often,” he said, “It is only through in-depth human studies that we can effectively untangle complex diseases.”
Studying humans, according to Savill, will expedite treatment development because the research is more easily translated.
The first of the studies will address why the elderly are more prone to infections and less responsive to vaccination.
The proposal, led by Arne Akbar at University College London, suspects that lower levels of inflammation could be to blame. The proposed research will do side by side comparisons of both young and old immune systems after both are exposed to a safe level of pathogens. Scientists will also see if drug therapies that block the low-level inflammation allow the immune system to respond more efficiently.
The second study will investigate whether appetite suppressants could also be used to block cravings for alcohol and tobacco.
According to lab studies on rodents, David Nutt and Tony Goldstone of Imperial College London have found that biologic appetite suppressants not only reduce the rat’s appetite for food but also for alcohol and nicotine. Researchers hope to use their findings in human studies to adapt existing therapies for new indications.
The third study involves genetic mutation and its effect on the progression of Parkinson’s disease.
Scientists have found that people who possess mutations in a gene called GBA are 20-30 times more likely to develop Parkinson’s. A team, led by Anthony Schapira at University College London will investigate whether or not using an enzyme-boosting drug could potentially suppress this gene and slow the progression of the disease.
Life Science’s Minister George Freeman explains the importance of the investment in experimental research. “The more we discover about disease the more we know how and why different patients respond in different ways to different diseases and drugs: unlocking a new age of preventative and personalized medicine.”