Biosensor Based Clinical-decision Support For Patients With Heart Failure
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$691,933.00
Summary
Heart Failure (HF) is a progressive disease and a major global public health concern. HF accounts for a substantial number of hospitalisations, major healthcare resource utilisation and costs. We aim to engineer biosensor platform to stratify the risk in HF patients will revolutionise current management of HF by providing the cardiologist information to risk stratify patients based on protein signature. This will lead to a substantial paradigm shift in clinical practice.
NPY Suppresses Seizures And Modulates Thalamocortical Activity In Animal Models Of Generalized Epilepsy
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$386,020.00
Summary
Epilepsy is the most common serious chronic neurological disease in the community, affecting up to 3% of the population in a lifetime and 0.5-1% at any one time. Absence epilepsy is one of the most common types of epilepsy, most frequently seen in childhood and teenage years that may persist into adulthood. Anti-epileptic drugs are effective in controlling absence seizures in most patients, however there is an important group (20-40%) of patients in whom the absence seizures remain uncontrolled ....Epilepsy is the most common serious chronic neurological disease in the community, affecting up to 3% of the population in a lifetime and 0.5-1% at any one time. Absence epilepsy is one of the most common types of epilepsy, most frequently seen in childhood and teenage years that may persist into adulthood. Anti-epileptic drugs are effective in controlling absence seizures in most patients, however there is an important group (20-40%) of patients in whom the absence seizures remain uncontrolled with current medications. Recently there has been considerable interest in the role that chemical in the brain, such as neuropeptide Y (NPY), may play in epilepsy. The research proposed will examine the role of NPY in several animal models of absence epilepsy. We have recently shown that NPY suppresses absence seizures in a rat genetic model of generalised epilepsy, and that this appears to be mediated by Y2 receptors. This work will build on these novel findings, and determine the localisation of the effect within the brain, and the underlying mechanism. We will check NPY effects across several models in different species, a genetic rat model with spontaneous seizures, and in mice treated with a chemical to induce seizures. This will determine its broad applicability. We will also determine the effects of removal of NPY or NPY receptors on the effects of NPY on seizure expression. Finally, brain recording techniques will be applied to determine the mechanism and site within the brain underlying the protective actions of NPY. The project has the potential to provide novel insights into the role of NPY in the expression and modulation of absence seizures. NPY related mechanisms might represent targets for the development of a new class of therapeutic agents for the treatment of absence epilepsy. Targets that are identified as being important in the expression of absence seizures may also prove to be relevant in other types of generalised epilepsy syndromes.Read moreRead less
Temporal Trends In The Incidence, Site And Survival Of Metastatic Breast Cancer In Australia
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$190,494.00
Summary
There have been major advances in breast cancer treatment over the last decade. This project will use information collected from the NSW cancer registry and hospitals to report on changes in the type and risk of breast cancer spread and survival for women with a new diagnosis of breast cancer before and after new treatments introduced since 2005. This information is essential for doctors to provide women with up-to-date information; and for planning appropriate health services and research.
Centre For Translational Neuroscience: A Modular Platform For Translating Discovery Into Health Outcomes
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,623,735.00
Summary
Clinical Centre of Research Excellence in Translational Neuroscience will provide people, pathways and resources to create a novel platform to take the outputs of Neuroscience Discovery programs though to improved patient outcomes for common brain diseases. A critical role will be to train and equip the best and brightest of the next generation of researchers to undertake internationally competitive translational neuroscience research that makes a difference to the health of our community.
THE EFFECT OF STRESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT ON DISEASE PROGRESSION IN MESIAL TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$578,201.00
Summary
Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, the most common form of drug-resistant epilepsy in adults, is a progressive neurodegenerative condition for which there is currently no effective disease modifying treatment. This proposal will explore whether co-morbid stress accelerates disease progression in MTLE, and whether targeting stress pathways by medical and environmental manipulations can mitigate against this.
Targeting NPY Mechanisms In Rodent Models Of Generalised Epilepsy
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$437,637.00
Summary
This project will provide important information regarding the pharmacological mechanisms by which NPY acts to suppress seizures in animal models of epilepsy. It will provide strategies regarding potential new treatments of absence epilepsy.
The Final Common Channel: Measurement Of Nerve Excitability In Epilepsy.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$301,376.00
Summary
Epilepsy may be due to either one single genetic mutation or a combination of several gene-environment interactions, affecting how ion channels function. It is not possible to directly interrogate channels in the living human brain but, because similar channels are found in peripheral nerve, much may be learned about aberrant channel function from peripheral nerve. This project aims to measure peripheral nerve excitability in epilepsy patients, using it as a marker of the final common pathway of ....Epilepsy may be due to either one single genetic mutation or a combination of several gene-environment interactions, affecting how ion channels function. It is not possible to directly interrogate channels in the living human brain but, because similar channels are found in peripheral nerve, much may be learned about aberrant channel function from peripheral nerve. This project aims to measure peripheral nerve excitability in epilepsy patients, using it as a marker of the final common pathway of channel dysfunction.Read moreRead less
Individualising Care For Patients With Chronic Hepatitis C: Predicting Side Effects And Treatment Response Using Genomic And Proteomic Approaches.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$55,575.00
Summary
Patients undergoing treatment for hepatitis C must endure a treatment characterized by unpredictable treatment side effects and uncertainty about the likelihood of cure. This project will investigate genetic predictors of treatment related side-effects and protein markers to predict treatment response. Better definition of the risks and benefits of therapy, may facilitate patients and clinicians to make more informed decisions about treatment, thus individualising treatment and potentially impro ....Patients undergoing treatment for hepatitis C must endure a treatment characterized by unpredictable treatment side effects and uncertainty about the likelihood of cure. This project will investigate genetic predictors of treatment related side-effects and protein markers to predict treatment response. Better definition of the risks and benefits of therapy, may facilitate patients and clinicians to make more informed decisions about treatment, thus individualising treatment and potentially improving the safety and efficacy of therapy.Read moreRead less
The Effect Of Stress And Hypercortisolaemia On Limbic Epileptogenesis & Affective Disorder.
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$380,714.00
Summary
This project has the potential to provide novel insights about the causal connections between stress, psychiatric illness (specifically anxiety and depression) and temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) - the most common form of medical refractory epilepsy in the community. Up to 50% of patients with TLE suffer from anxiety and-or depression. Until relatively recently it had been widely assumed that this was a consequence of the chronic epileptic condition. However, recent evidence suggests that there is ....This project has the potential to provide novel insights about the causal connections between stress, psychiatric illness (specifically anxiety and depression) and temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) - the most common form of medical refractory epilepsy in the community. Up to 50% of patients with TLE suffer from anxiety and-or depression. Until relatively recently it had been widely assumed that this was a consequence of the chronic epileptic condition. However, recent evidence suggests that there is a bi-directional relationship, with the psychiatric conditions and stress also acting to aggravate the seizures and even predispose to the development of the epilepsy itself. Apart from gaining insights into causes of TLE, anxiety and depression, this framework has potential public health relevance suggesting approaches to the eventual primary and secondary prevention of both MTLE and its associated psychiatric co-morbidities, a neglected area at present. The use of an animal model allows investigation of aetiological processes that extend over the lifetime, which is exceptionally difficult to achieve in humans. Retrospective studies, such as case-control studies, although an indispensable research methods, are subject to bias and imprecision when it comes to measuring remote past exposures to stress, abuse, and deprivation. If the results of these experiments are consistent with our hypotheses, a very strong case would exist for exploring this relationship in human studies. The data would also provide a strong rationale for more aggressive detection and treatment of these psychiatric co-morbidities in TLE patients, in order to potentially modify the progression of the disorder as well as improve the quality of life of sufferers. The results of intervention studies in animal models may suggest specific mode of treatment to achieve this.Read moreRead less
STudy Of Risk Assessment To Reduce Complications In Patients Following Noncardiac SurgerY (STRATIFY)
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$436,000.00
Summary
Cardiac problems account for many complications in patients undergoing major non-cardiac surgery, and even apparently minor cardiac damage is a marker of high risk for subsequent adverse events. Unfortunately, while money and effort is expended on identifying patients at risk, the appropriate response to this risk is quite unclear. The performance of bypass surgery or balloon angioplasty in order to treat the underlying coronary disease of at-risk patients is used in other situations, and reduce ....Cardiac problems account for many complications in patients undergoing major non-cardiac surgery, and even apparently minor cardiac damage is a marker of high risk for subsequent adverse events. Unfortunately, while money and effort is expended on identifying patients at risk, the appropriate response to this risk is quite unclear. The performance of bypass surgery or balloon angioplasty in order to treat the underlying coronary disease of at-risk patients is used in other situations, and reduces longterm risk. However, in many patients undergoing major noncardiac surgery, this approach may be inappropriately aggressive, as these patients are often elderly, have other diseases that make heart operations more difficult and risky than usual, and in any case may have a reduced life expectancy from the disease necessitating the operation. As the most critical issue is to ensure that patients undergo their surgery uneventfully, an alternative is the use of intensive medical therapy to protect the heart. This multicentre study, based at Brisbane hospitals that perform large numbers of major operations, will follow up patients for complications, and outcome (including quality of life) will be assessed six months after the operation. We will address two important questions about the efficacy and cost of risk reduction strategies. First, in patients at higher levels of risk and with a positive stress test, could a combination of medical therapy designed to protect the heart be as effective as current approaches, which include the performance of bypass surgery or coronary balloon angioplasty? Second, in patients identified as being at some risk - but low risk - are drugs sufficiently effective to avoid the need for further testing to quantify risk? As the population continues to age, the numbers of at risk patients undergoing major surgery will increase, and answers to these questions will provide important information to guide their management.Read moreRead less