page_title: Shake it Up Australia Foundation
section_title: Inflammation study at the University of Queensland
hierarchical_section_title: Shake it Up Australia Foundation / Research projects / Inflammation study at the University of Queensland
caption_attribution_description: English: The NLRP3 inflammasome (green) is expressed by immune cells (red) in the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease.
context_page_description: The Shake It Up Australia Foundation is an Australian non-for-profit foundation founded in 2011 by Clyde and Greg Campbell. It is partnered with the Michael J. Fox Foundation to achieve the foundations primary aims of “promoting and funding Parkinson’s disease research in Australia to slow, stop and cure the disease”. Together MJFF and SIUAF are the largest non-government funders of Parkinson's research across multiple institutes in Australia. Since its founding, the foundation has co-founded 38 Parkinson's research projects across 12 institutes to the value of over $10.8 million. The foundation's funding model ensures that 100% of proceeds goes towards Parkinson's research in Australia. This is possible due to the founding directors covering all overhead costs and expenses. In January 2019, Shake It Up are one of the partner organisation in the Australian Parkinson's Mission which was awarded a $30 million-dollar grant to test repurposed drugs in clinical trials.
context_section_description: The inflammasome study conducted at the University of Queensland produced a promising new therapy to stop Parkinson's disease progressing through counteracting brain inflammation caused by immune cells. The study primarily targeting ways to counteract immune cells, specifically the microglia called NLRP3 inflammasome which is highly activated in patients with Parkinson's disease. The NLRP3 inflammasome reacts to synuclein containing protein clumps by increasing inflammatory signals which contributes to the depletion of dopamine producing cells within the brain. Whilst, recruiting more pathological proteins to create an intense cycle of neuroinflammation and a synuclein buildup within the brain. The study found that a small molecule MCC950 administered orally once a day, stopped the development of Parkinson's disease in several animal models. It was found to block NLRP3 activation within the brain and prevent both the loss of dopamine producing brain cells and neuroinflammation, resulting in significantly improved motor function - the leading symptom of parkinson's disease. UQ Bioscience researcher Professor Matt Cooper stated that the  “MCC950 molecule effectively ‘cooled the brains on fire’, turning down microglial inflammatory activity, and allowing neurons to function normally.”
  Currently, there are no medications on the market that prevent brain cell loss in Parkinson's patients. Current therapies focus on managing symptoms rather than halting the progression of the degenerative disease. The promising results from this study validate a promising new target for Parkinson's researcher's and therapeutics to substantiate a potential drug to stop the progression of Parkinson's disease. The drug is now being commercialised for clinical trials by inflamzone, a pioneering biotech company that develops several small molecule drugs that inhibit harmful inflammation within the brain. With the success and extensive research studies taken place to ensure the drug is safe, tolerable and efficacious, human trials of the drug is now attainable. Phase 1 of the clinical trials on healthy volunteers is expected to start in 2019, with phase 2 trials on Parkinson's patient's predicted to take place in 2020 dependent on the results of Phase 1.
caption: The NLRP3 inflammasome (green) is expressed by immune cells (red) in the brains of people with Parkinson's disease.
exif: {}