RLS Foundation 2024 Research Grant Program Awardees

Each December, the RLS Foundation announces the opening of preapplications for research grant proposals through its Research Grant Program. Since its inception in 1997, this program has focused on supporting efforts to develop better treatments for RLS and ultimately find a cure. Researchers can apply for grant proposals of a 1 year-duration, with funding levels of up to $50,000.

This year marks a significant milestone: for the first time, the RLS Foundation is funding four RLS research studies in the same year! This historic level of support is made possible by our dedicated members and a collaboration with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Foundation (AASMF), which co-funded one of the grant awards. Each project aims to deepen our understanding of the genetic, biochemical, and cellular mechanisms of RLS.

We are excited to introduce the innovative researchers leading these groundbreaking studies:

Shawn Hochman, PhD

Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia

RLS Foundation and AASMF Co-Funded Grant

Grant Title: Sensory dysfunction in a diet-induced iron-de¬ficiency mouse model of RLS: Characterization and control by dopamine-sensitive spinal gating circuitry

Objective: This study aims to use electrophysiological and genetic approaches in mice to study whether an iron-deficient diet leads to; (1) increased excitability in select ‘pain-like’ pe-ripheral sensory signals arising in calf muscles, (2) whose activa¬tion of central circuits is abnormally amplified due to deficient capacity for dopamine-sensitive inhibitory gating signals in the spinal cord. As an individual with RLS, I fully appreciate the suf¬fering associated with abnormal limb sensations and the imme¬diate relief provided by leg movements.

Imad Ghorayeb, MD, PhD

Hospital Center University De Bordeaux, France

Grant Title: Functional connectivity of the interoceptive network in RLS: An anatomo-clinical prospective study

Objective: This project will precisely characterize the intero¬ception awareness in RLS patients together with the time vari¬ance of the symptoms and their sleep/wake cycle impairment using ambulatory assessment. This assessment of the symp¬toms will be correlated to time-of-day intrinsic connectivity of the insula, based on both static and dynamic connectivity frameworks. Such a survey may confirm the hypothesis that interoceptive dysfunction in patients with RLS would link the sensorimotor and non-motor symptoms of the disorder into a common pathophysiological process.

Brian Koo, MD

Yale Center for Sleep Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut

Grant Title: Cerebrospinal Fluid Melanocortin and Endor¬phin in Restless Legs Syndrome Related Augmentation

Objective: This proposal aims to study melanocortin biol¬ogy among RLS patients suffering dopamine agonist-induced augmentation and in the post-augmentation stabilized state, having been taken off the dopamine drug and treated with a non-dopamine medication. This proposal focuses on the neurobiological interaction between dopamine and MC biol¬ogy, first assessing cerebrospinal fluid MCs (α-MSH, β-MSH, β-EDP) in the chronic dopamine agonist setting, and then in the post-dopamine agonist setting.

Mauro Manconi, MD, PhD

Sleep and Epilepsy Center, Civic Hospital Neurocenter of Southern Switzerland

Grant Title: Epidural Spinal Cord Stimulation in Refractory or Augmented Restless Legs Syndrome

Objective: This research consists of a pilot interventional study with the general aim to test the efficacy and safety of epidural spinal cord stimulation (SCS) in patients with moderate to very severe RLS that is refractory, or intolerant to standard treatments. This is a proof-of-concept, open-label clinical trial.

Congratulations to the 2024 grant awardees! An in-depth review of each study will be published in the Fall edition of the RLS Foundation's quarterly magazine, NightWalkers. If you are not yet a member of the RLS Foundation and would like to receive a subscription to NightWalkers, visit our website at www.rls.org.