AFTD og Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) har tildelt fire nye forskningsbevillinger på i alt $3,4 millioner for at fremme videnskaben om FTD og fremskynde udviklingen af nye behandlinger.

"Denne form for forpligtelse giver kritisk støtte til finansiering af forskning, der undersøger de mange biologiske veje, der menes at forårsage disse sygdomme. Vores fire nye forskningspriser er gode eksempler på dette,” forklarer Susan LJ Dickinson, AFTD CEO.

The awards were announced in late September, during World FTD Awareness Week 2020.

Judith Steen, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School (afbilledet ovenfor), received an award through ADDF’s Diagnostisk accelerator. She will develop a blood test to distinguish between tau and TDP-43 protein accumulations – biomarkers that are fingerprints of FTD and other neurodegenerative diseases. “Proteomics, the study of proteins, is an important avenue of FTD scientific investigation, one that AFTD has supported for a long time,” said Debra Niehoff, Ph.D., AFTD Research Manager. “This area holds much promise for future diagnosis and treatments.”

Dr. Steens laboratorium har banebrydende metoder til at identificere forskellige proteiner med det højeste niveau af nøjagtighed. Ved hjælp af en blodprøve kan en læge stille en differentieret FTD-diagnose og tilmelde individer i de rigtige kliniske forsøg: et væsentligt skridt hen imod at bestemme, hvilke terapier der kan give håb.

The drug rotigotine is commonly used to treat Parkinson’s. But when Giacomo Koch, MD, PhD, and his colleagues at the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome ran a clinical trial that repurposed rotigotine for Alzheimer’s patients, they discovered improved cognitive function for those with mild-to-moderate disease. Now, through a grant through the TreatFTD Fund, Dr. Koch will launch a study with rotigotine to learn if persons with behavioral variant FTD can benefit.

Other newly funded research includes the work of Emiliano Santarnecchi, PhD, and a team from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who will explore if a low-intensity brain stimulation device can modify FTD symptoms. Dr. Santarnecchi also received an award through the TreatFTD Fund, which was made possible by generous multi-year commitments from the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation and the Lauder Foundation, Leonard Lauder, and Ronald S. Lauder.

"Hver dag forbliver vi strategisk fokuseret på at fremme forskning med det største potentiale til at forbedre livskvaliteten for dem med FTD - og i sidste ende at udrydde denne snigende hjernesygdom," sagde Penny Dacks, PhD, AFTD Senior Director of Scientific Initiatives.

Dieter Edbauer, MD, og kolleger ved det tyske center for neurodegenerative sygdomme i Bonn er ved at udvikle en behandling, der bruger immunterapi til at målrette C9orf72 mutation – a common genetic cause of FTD and ALS. Dr. Edbauer’s award was made through the Acceleration Drug Discovery for FTD Fund.