In the media: Progressive supranuclear palsy clinical trial

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) has no known effective treatment or cure. PSP affects brain cells that control walking, balance, mobility, vision, speech, swallowing, thinking and behaviour. It is a devastating neurodegenerative condition, often misdiagnosed as Parkinson's Disease, that affects people over the age of 40 years old, for which there is currently no disease-modifying treatment.

Professor Terry O’Brien, Dr Lucy Vivash and colleagues from the Monash University Department of Neuroscience have been awarded more than $2.6 million from the Medical Research Future Fund to study a trial of sodium selenate as a disease-modifying treatment of PSP.

Seventy patients from specialist movement disorders services across Australia will be recruited to the study, receiving either sodium selenate or a placebo for 12 months. Because PPS is caused by an accumulation of the protein, tau, in the brain (as is also seen in Alzheimer’s Disease), the researchers will be looking for a reduction in this protein on PET scanning.

13 July 2020 Herald Sun "Early-warning hope: Rare brain disease focus of trial" by Alanah Frost.