Aberdeen scientists receive major cash injection for research into common bone disease
A team of scientists in Aberdeen have received a massive cash injection from an arthritis charity to help them track down the genes responsible for a common type of bone disease.
Their work could lead to doctors predicting who is at risk of developing Paget's disease of bone - which affects up one million people in the UK - and to develop better treatment.
The research team, based at the University of Aberdeen, have been awarded almost £700,000 over five years by leading medical research charity the Arthritis Research Campaign (arc).
The latest grant will reinforce Aberdeen as Scotland's leading centre of research into bone disease. arc currently pumps more than £3m into 16 different research projects at the university.
People suffering with Paget's have increased bone activity. Because of this, the normal renewal and repair process which keeps normal people's bones healthy is accelerated - sometimes more than ten-fold. This causes overgrowth of some bones; particularly the skull, pelvis, spine, thigh and shinbones. This can lead to pain, deafness, bone softening and deformity and fractures.
Previous research has shown that genetic factors may play a part in the development Paget's, and the Aberdeen researchers have contributed to advances over recent years which have identified two genes that cause the disease. Now the research group in the Institute of Medical Sciences led by Professor Stuart Ralston will investigate how mutations in a certain gene increase production of bone and lead to Paget's, and will try to identify other genes that cause the disease.
"Genetic factors are important in Paget's disease; we know that because between 15-40 per cent of people who suffer from it also have an affected family member," explained Professor Ralston, who is already heading up a national arc clinical trial of up to 1,500 Paget's patients to investigate the best treatment for the condition. "This programme will investigate the mechanism by which one gene causes Paget's and will aim to identify some of the other genes responsible for the disease. We also believe that the information from this basic research work will help us to identify patients who are likely to get complications of the disease such as deafness and bone deformity, and to target treatments more effectively to these individuals."
