The Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association and the Medical Research Council (MRC), along with researchers from the University of Oxford, have joined forces to conduct the Oxford Study for Biomarkers in MND/ALS (BioMOx). This resulted in the identification of a common signature of nerve damage in patients who have MND. 

Dr. Martin Turner and his team from the University of Oxford have discovered a "unique similarity" between nerve damage found in the region of the brain which connects the motor neurones to the brain, and nerve damage found in the corpus callosum, which is a region of the brain that acts as a connection between the right and left sides. 

Until now, patients with MND have had to wait too long for a diagnosis of MND because MND research was hindered by the lack of predictable markers, or biomarkers, of the progression of the disease. Researchers also lacked an early diagnostic test. With the use of an MND biomarker, MND patients can be diagnosed more quickly and accurately, which is the main goal of the BioMOx study. 

"The BioMOx study is one of the largest biomarker studies for MND in the world," said Dr. Brian Dickie, director of research development at the MND Association. "It's very encouraging to hear the first exciting results emerging from this four-year initiative."

In this particular study, researchers scanned healthy brains as well as brains that contained MND damage using an advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique. Every six months, researchers for the BioMOx study followed changes in the brain, in blood and in spinal cord fluid of people with MND. By scanning and comparing specific areas of the brain, Turner and his team were able to find a pattern of nerve damage within MND patients, which has led to the discovery of a MND biomarker. 

"The finding of a common pattern of nerve pathway damage in a varied group of MND patients holds the promise of a much needed biomarker," said Turner. "This study confirms the ability of advanced MRI techniques to sensitively detect nerve damage in a wide range of people living with MND. It builds on a decade of international work, and shows that MRI is now a frontrunner in the quest to generate biomarkers of disease activity in MND." 

Researchers hope to use what they've discovered in the BioMOx study to develop improved treatments for patients with MND. 

"MRI scanning provides an exciting 'window on the brain,' allowing researchers to link the changes occurring in the central nervous system with the 'real world' symptoms of MND," said Dickie. "Understanding these changing events is going to be central to the development of future treatments."