Analysis of Physical Activity as an Environmental Risk Factor for Motor Neurone Disease (MND)

在运动神经元疾病（MND）中，神经系统的损伤会导致进行性肢体无力和言语、吞咽以及最终呼吸困难。MND的病因尚不清楚，也没有有效的治疗方法。不幸的是，MND患者通常在症状发作后3年内死亡。对身体活动（PA）作为MND的危险因素的兴趣来自于专业运动员可能比预期更经常发展MND的建议。因此，我们计划进行一项研究，以调查与健康志愿者相比，MND患者过去是否更有可能接受高水平的PA。我们建议采访患者和志愿者使用问卷调查，我们设计的措施PA在整个人的成年生活。我们将分析收集的数据，以确定是否存在关联。我们假设PA是MND的一个危险因素，只有一部分遗传易感个体，并通过确定这种关联，我们将深入了解这种异常的生物反应PA。我们希望这些结果最终将有助于通过提高我们对与这种疾病相关的环境和遗传相互作用因素的理解来开发新的MND治疗方法。

In motor neurone disease (MND), damage to the nervous system causes progressive limb weakness and difficulty with speech, swallowing and ultimately breathing. The cause of MND is unknown and there are no effective treatments. Sadly, patients with MND usually die within 3 years of symptom onset. Interest in physical activity (PA) as a risk factor for MND arose from suggestions that professional sports people may develop MND more often than is expected. Therefore, we plan to perform a study to investigate if MND patients are more likely to have undertaken high levels of PA in the past compared to healthy volunteers. We propose to interview patients and volunteers using a questionnaire we have designed which measures the PA performed throughout a person‘s adult life. We will analyse the data collected to determine if an association does exist. We hypothesise that PA is a risk factor for MND in only a proportion of genetically susceptible individuals and by determining this association we will gain insight into this abnormal biological response to PA. We hope the results will ultimately contribute to the development of new MND treatments by improving our understanding of the environmental and genetic interacting factors associated with this disease.