Lou Gehrig's Disease or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a neurological disorder characterized by progressive degeneration of motor neuron cells in the spinal cord and brain, which ultimately results in paralysis and death. The disease takes its less-scientific name from Lou Gehrig, a baseball player with the New York Yankees in the late 1920s and 1930s, who was forced to retire in 1939 as a result of the loss of motor control caused by the disease.
In 1991, a team of researchers linked familial ALS to chromosome 21. Two years later, the SOD1 gene was identified as being associated with many cases of familial ALS. The enzyme coded for by SOD1 carries out a very important function in cells: it removes dangerous superoxide radicals by converting them into non-harmful substances. Defects in the action of this enzyme mean that the superoxide radicals attack cells from the inside, causing their death. Several different mutations in this enzyme all result in ALS, making the exact molecular cause of the disease difficult to ascertain.
Recent research has suggested that treatment with drugs called antioxidants may benefit ALS patients. However, since the molecular genetics of the disease are still unclear, a significant amount of research is still required to design other promising treatments for ALS.
Maurizio Pellecchia, who holds the Daniel Hays Chair in Cancer Research at the University of California, Riverside, has received two grants to continue his research aimed at finding therapeutics for cancer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Two strains of human herpesvirus-;human herpesvirus 6A (HHV-6A) and human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7) -;are found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease at levels up to twice as high as in those without Alzheimer's, researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai report.
Aquinnah Pharmaceuticals, leaders in stress granule biology, an exciting new target for the development of neurodegenerative therapeutics, announced today that it has been awarded $3.4 million from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in a competing grant to advance novel therapeutic drug candidates towards the clinic for treating patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
Under the increased pressure of glaucoma, scientists want to help the neurons in our eyes better protect themselves and get better help from their friends.
A new Tel Aviv University study identifies a previously unknown mechanism involved in the development of Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
The blood of schizophrenia patients features genetic material from more types of microorganisms than that of people without the debilitating mental illness, research at Oregon State University has found.
Recent research from Houston Methodist Hospital showed that a new immunotherapy was safe for patients with ALS and also revealed surprising results that could bring hope to patients who have this relentlessly progressive and fatal disease.
Scientists at the UNC School of Medicine have made a significant advance in the understanding of the complex and fatal neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
Scientists at the University of Wyoming have found that mice engineered to have Huntington's disease (HD) have an over-accumulation of iron in their mitochondria.
It took eight long years of research, but now an international team led by neuroscientists at Université de Montréal has discovered a basic molecular mechanism that better helps understand how Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), works.
An estimated 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson's disease--an incurable neurodegenerative disorder that leads to an increasing loss of motor control.
A new study has increased understanding of the connection between angiogenin and neurological disorders such as ALS and Fronto-temporal dementia.
Researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have discovered that a protein critical to a process called liquid-liquid phase separation within the cell undergoes internal changes in conformation that are key to its function.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, causes lethal respiratory paralysis within several years of diagnosis. There are no effective treatments to slow or halt this devastating disease.
Scientists have for the first time discovered a mechanism that limits the number of "cellular janitors" in the nervous system, leading to increased risk for two neurodegenerative diseases: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia, according to a Keck School of Medicine of USC study published today in Nature Medicine.
UCLA researchers have discovered the inner workings of a gene network that regulates the development of spinal motor neurons in the growing chicken and mouse embryo.
Colin Campbell needs help dressing, bathing and moving between his bed and his wheelchair. He has a feeding tube because his partially paralyzed tongue makes swallowing "almost impossible," he said.
Newly described stretches of super-silenced DNA reveal a fresh approach to reprogram cell identity to use in regenerative medicine studies and one day in the clinic, according to a study in Molecular Cell last week by investigators from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
The day before his 30th birthday, Marqus Valentine was in a panic. "I was so scared for midnight to come rolling around because subconsciously I was like, 'This is it. Tomorrow’s my last day on Earth,'" he said.
Scientists have revealed more details of the molecular mechanism behind neuronal cell death in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a step forward to find ways to control progression of the disease.
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