BACKGROUND TO CDRF | THE FUTURE

BACKGROUND TO CDRF

The Chronic Disease Research Foundation (CDRF) was set up to look at new ways of exploring the genetics of diseases associated with ageing. Our mission is to target those common diseases, such as; osteoporosis, arthritis, back pain, migraine, asthma and diabetes, that we inherit from our parents, and prevent and alleviate them now and for future generations.

The CDRF's long term aim is to provide funds for projects, fellowships and equipment to researchers studying the genetic basis of common chronic diseases of developed countries. The CDRF also supports genetic studies using twins to uncover clues about aetiology and risk factors for disease, particularly if they have no commercial value and therefore may not attract support from industry.

In the short term, however, the CDRF wishes to focus its limited resources towards studies of twins and affected sibling pairs or family studies investigating common chronic diseases. To this end it has identified the Twin Research Unit (TRU) at St Thomas' Hospital, London, as the most suitable project for the majority of the CDRF's support for the next three years. The TRU currently have detailed information on over 10,000 twins.

THE FUTURE
We want to increase the scope of the research in two ways,

1. To include other common diseases of ageing which have not yet been studied in detail, such as deafness, diabetes, dementia and memory loss, muscular pain syndromes, heart failure, and incontinence. These are often viewed as less glamorous diseases and therefore receive less funding. We would also like to study more males and look at the differences in genes between the sexes.
2. Having found a common disease to have a genetic basis (such as arthritis), we need to uncover the genes responsible. To do this we need to perform larger studies and examine the DNA of several thousand non-identical twins on whom we’ve collected information, and compare the genes of those with and without the disease.

If you can pinpoint the genes responsible for a certain disease you can do two things. First, you can develop a diagnostic test which allows you to predict the risk of someone getting the disease later in life and take steps to reduce the risk by changing diet or environment or with drugs. Second, by discovering the genes you will discover new chemical pathways in the body, which are targets for new drug development and novel treatments.

An example is disk disease, the major cause of back pain, which affects 50% of adults at some time and 10% severely. We have studied 400 twins using MRI scans of the spine (the only way to see disks) and found that 60% of disk disease is genetic. We now wish to perform the larger study on 2000 twins to determine which the important genes are. If successful this will produce a simple test to determine an individuals chance of disease, so they can reduce their risks by avoiding certain jobs or training themselves appropriately and will also lead to new drugs to be developed to prevent the disks getting damaged.

In time it is hoped that the CDRF will become large and successful enough to support a wide range of projects around the world.