A research charity has launched a campaign to raise money to lay the foundations for human trials of a therapy for motor neurone disease (MND).
The Funding Neuro campaign to raise the £150,000 needed for the pre-clinical stage of development has already been boosted by a £50,000 donation from the My Name'5 Doddie Foundation.
READ MORE: Rugby legend Doddie Weir be given an honorary degree
It was set up last year by Scotland rugby legend Doddie Weir, who suffers from MND.
There is currently no cure for the fatal condition, which affects the brain and nerves, and causes weakness over time.
The research hopes to develop a therapy that will deliver viral and gene therapy directly into the brain to restore the function of motor neurones.
Laboratory work led by Bristol-based neurosurgeon Professor Steven Gill has shown specific viruses that are modified to carry therapeutic genes can be transported into the spinal cord using a technique called convection enhanced delivery (CED).
Prof Gill said: "The standard treatments that are currently available for motor neurone disease may enhance a patient's quality of life but there is yet to be a therapy to combat the disease.
READ MORE: Scottish rugby legend Doddie Weir receives Edinburgh Award
"Backed by Funding Neuro, our project has the potential to offer a fast-track approach to a neuroprotective and regenerative treatment for the disease.
"By bringing together experts in neurosurgery, gene therapy, medical engineering and biotech pharma we have developed the technology and know-how to successfully deliver gene therapies to the central nervous system.
"We are now in a unique position to rapidly translate these promising lab results to clinical trials to protect and repair motor neurones."
Prof Gill, known for his pioneering work with delivering drugs directly into the brain with CED to treat Parkinson's Disease and brain tumours, has seen positive results pre-clinically with gene therapy targeting MND.
The charity said early testing has shown the technique to provide safe and effective gene delivery to motor neurones and the next pre-clinical stage is to evaluate the most effective dose of the virus that can be safely delivered.
Before clinical trials in humans can be started, researchers need to determine the most effective doses that can be delivered safely.
Weir said: "We are pleased to be supporting such an innovative programme.
"Success has been shown in the lab using gene therapy to combat the disease, however, to date this has not been translated successfully into a patient.
"We hope that by combining gene therapy with a delivery system that is able to get the therapy to where it can be effective will provide real hope for people with the condition."
Anyone wishing to donate can go to www.bit.ly/mndneuro or Text FMND10 £10 to 70070.
Dr Brian Dickie, director of research development at the Motor Neurone Disease Association, said: "One of the major challenges in treating neurodegenerative diseases such as MND is the successful delivery of drugs into the brain and spinal cord.
"Professor Gill and colleagues are adopting an innovative approach that could increase the chances of success when testing experimental therapies."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here