Vitamin found in cheese and spinach brings new hope for motor neurone disease patients

Scots scientists may have found drug to unlock the vitamin in the body and prevent damage in degenerative brain diseases

AN every day vitamin found in food is the new hope for targeting devastating conditions like MND.

Scots scientists have found drugs activate vitamin A may be therapeutic for diseases which lead to deterioration of the brain.

Vitamin A is found in a variety of foods like beef liver, oily fish like salmon and herring, milk, cheese, and yogurt, eggs, leafy green vegetables, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, mangos, apricots, cantaloupe and even some breakfast cereals.

Research from Aberdeen University found when disease conditions were simulated in the laboratory, the team found that ‘super-activation’ of the vitamin A signalling system helped protect against the type of damage which can occur in diseases such as MND.

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The devastating condition claimed the life of Scot's rugby legend Doddie Weir two years ago .

Professor Peter McCaffery, Chair in Medical Sciences at the University of Aberdeen, who led the study explained: “We discovered that these drugs bind and turn on the “retinoic acid receptor”, a key protein involved in activation of vitamin A in the body.

The drugs were tested in a series of studies on neurons grown in a dish.

Chemicals were added to them which caused harm similar to the changes which occur in diseases such as MND or ALS.

Usually, these chemicals cause the neurons to die. However, the application of the drugs which bind to the retinoic acid receptor significantly reduced the number of cells which died off.

The drugs were also tested in mice and were found to induce changes which suggest they may be effective in humans.

Motor neuron disease affects 5000 adults in the UK at any one time and there is a 1 in 300 risk of getting MND across a lifetime.

Once the disease progresses it leads to the death of the motor neurons essential for muscle control, resulting in progressive muscle weakness, and in most cases the disease is fatal in a few years.

No treatments currently exist that will improve this condition for more than just a few months.

Professor McCaffery said: “Our research provides the first steps to identify new targets for drugs that may then lead to future therapies.”

Dr Nicholas Cole, Head of Research at the MND Association said: “We are delighted to be supporting such valuable early work which we hope will go towards aiding the discovery of potential new therapies which could be put forward for clinical testing.

“The hope of course, is that through continuing public support, collaboration and partnership working we will find solutions to unpick the complex nature of MND which will lead to an effective treatment.”

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