MND Scotland has announced a new partnership with the MND Association and My Name’5 Doddie Foundation to provide funding for research into traumatic brain injuries and motor neuron disease.

A new research project co-led by the University of Glasgow’s Professor William Stewart will be supported by the charity partnership to explore the potential link between traumatic brain injuries and motor neurone disease (MND).

Several recent research studies have found that elite football and rugby players who experience traumatic brain injuries are at a higher risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases, including MND.

In 2022, Professor Stewart published research suggesting MND occurs more frequently in professional rugby players, compared to the general population.

Earlier work of his in 2019 similarly found that professional footballers had a three-and-a-half times higher than expected risk of death from neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and MND.

Repetitive head impact, such as those experienced in elite-level contact sports, is now being proposed by researchers as a risk factor – alongside age and genetics – in the development of MND.

However, Professor Stewart told healthandcare.scot that people who have suffered a traumatic brain injury should not see developing brain illness as inevitable, and many other factors are at play.

This new research project, ‘Traumatic brain injury and motor neuron disease (T-MND)’, will explore almost 4 million electronic health records to better understand the relationship between MND and traumatic brain industry.

Reducing risk

Using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink – previously used in studies for neurodegenerative conditions such as dementia, because it contains over 61 million health records – this new project hopes to identify measures to reduce risks.

The Scottish researchers hope to identify and understand risk factors for MND so that in the future clinicians and researchers can detect MND early and, ultimately, establish strategies to reduce the risk.

Project co-lead, Dr Donald Lyall, Lecturer in Public Health at the University of Glasgow, says:

“MND is a relatively uncommon condition, and this means that scientists need very large datasets to identify potential risk factors. Our project will use anonymized, secure large-scale healthcare data, from the UK population since 2005, to look for predictors of later MND.

“Our hope is that we can identify modifiable factors which may lower the risk of this condition. We are very grateful to MND Scotland, the MND Association and My Name’5 Doddie Foundation for this opportunity and look forward to sharing our results.”

Alongside Dr Lyall and Professor Stewart, this work will also be undertaken by postdoctoral researcher Dr Xingxing Zhu, who has a background in neuroscience.

Dr Xingxing Zhu recently completed a PhD at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, using population data to look at genetic contributions to brain and cognitive health, making her – according to MND Scotland – ‘ideally placed’ to take part in this new project. 

Dr Jane Haley, Director of Research for MND Scotland, said wider donations have supported the work to engage international experts in new research for MND:

“By coming together to co-fund this project, we aim to better understand whether there is a link between traumatic brain injuries, such as those that may occur in sport, and the development of MND. 

“The three charities are also working together as part of the MND Scotland led ‘Sport and MND Expert Working Group’ which is bringing together international experts from many disciplines to look at what research is needed to better understand possible links between sport and MND. 

“None of these activities would be possible without generous donations and we are very grateful to our supporters for everything they do to help fund vital research into MND.”

Read more: Repurposed drug for MND; Large scale Scots health study calls for volunteers; Genome research sees £46.3m boost; Scotland to host second world brain health summit; Redefining clinical meaningfulness; Scots women at the forefront of medical sciences

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