$100,000 awarded to Dr. Matthew Miller at McMaster University.
Over our lifetime, a variety of common viruses, such as the cold or flu virus, can make us ill. We recover from these infections, but scientists do not know yet if those events change our experiences with other diseases that develop later in life.
Mutations in a protein called senataxin have been shown to cause some forms of juvenile-onset ALS. In previous work, Dr. Miller identified that senataxin is also critical to managing how a cell responds to viral infection. Since this discovery, he has been exploring a potential connection between the body’s response mechanisms to viruses and the onset and disease progression of ALS.
With this grant, Dr. Miller will expose ALS model mice to two common viruses — influenza and herpes simplex virus 1 — and then study whether those experiences accelerate ALS disease processes later in life. If they do, he will look for a mechanism to explain how that acceleration occurs, by investigating whether immune responses were triggered and if those responses were associated with abnormal behaviour by proteins involved in ALS.
New understandings about a potential link between exposure to common viruses and accelerated ALS disease onset and progression may lead to a better understanding of how ALS is triggered, who may be susceptible and new ways to potentially treat the disease.