Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) News and Research

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Research reveals why a common genetic variant worsens outcomes for people with ALS and FTD

A pioneering new study led by UCL and National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists has revealed, for the first time, why a common genetic variant worsens disease outcomes for people with the devastating adult-onset neurodegenerative diseases amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

24 Feb 2022

Nine new Discovery Grants awarded to fuel the development of ALS treatments

With promising new therapies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) on the horizon, now is the time for ongoing investment in research discovery that will continue to fuel the development of treatments.

10 Feb 2022

Winners of the first CERF Medical Engineering Prize for ALS Research announced

The Cullen Education and Research Fund announced the recipients of the first CERF Medical Engineering Prize for ALS Research: Dr. Leigh Hochberg, Dr. Conor Walsh, and Dr. Sabrina Paganoni.

8 Feb 2022

New cloud-based data resource helps researchers to identify subtypes of ALS

A new cloud-based data resource co-developed by scientists at Cedars-Sinai provides the research community with a comprehensive set of tools to help identify new subtypes of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal neurological disorder.

4 Feb 2022

Blood tests may enable simpler, more accurate early diagnosis of ALS

Blood tests may enable more accurate diagnosis of ALS at an earlier stage of the disease. As described in a study by researchers at University of Gothenburg and Umeå University, it involves measuring the blood level of a substance that, as they have also shown, varies in concentration depending on which variant of ALS the patient has.

28 Jan 2022

Novel experimental drug designed to silence FUS gene may help treat ALS

Using an experimental drug, researchers were able to suppress a mutated amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) gene.

24 Jan 2022

Eikonoklastes completes a license to add novel gene therapy for treating neurodegenerative diseases

Eikonoklastes Therapeutics, a preclinical stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced it has completed a license with the University of California San Diego to add a novel gene therapy for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

20 Jan 2022

Scientists reveal toxic astrocyte changes in ALS

Scientists at the Francis Crick Institute have revealed harmful changes in supporting cells, called astrocytes, in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in two publications in Brain and Genome Research.

19 Jan 2022

Novel biomarker can be used to identify disease progression in ALS

An international collaboration led by Flinders University has identified a potential biomarker for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Motor Neuron Disease, providing a way to test the effectiveness of future clinical trials.

13 Jan 2022

Single-patient pilot study shows the ability of antisense oligonucleotide to suppress mutant ALS gene

Using a short, synthetic chain of chemically modified nucleotides engineered in the RNA Therapeutics Institute at UMass Chan Medical School, Robert H. Brown Jr., DPhil, MD, Jonathan Watts, PhD, and colleagues have shown the ability to suppress mutant forms of an ALS gene known as C9ORF72 in a single-patient pilot study.

24 Dec 2021

Ophthalmology professor receives $75,000 grant to support international collaborations on eye research

Steven DeVries, MD, PhD, the David Shoch, MD, PhD, professor of Ophthalmology, has received an International Research Collaborators Award from Research to Prevent Blindness.

14 Dec 2021

New prototype enables people with severely impaired motor skills to communicate with others

A research team from the University of Malaga has developed a prototype that combines scalp sensors and a graphical interface to enable people with severely impaired motor skills to communicate with others.

13 Dec 2021

Scientists determine structure of the molecule associated with ALS for the first time

Scientists have determined for the first time the structure of the molecule associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and multiple other neurodegenerative diseases.

9 Dec 2021

Repurposed ALS drug could slow gradual brain cell loss in Niemann-Pick disease type C1

Riluzole, a drug approved to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease affecting nerve cells controlling movement, could slow the gradual loss of a particular brain cell that occurs in Niemann-Pick disease type C1 (NPC1), a rare genetic disorder affecting children and adolescents, suggests a study in mice by scientists at the National Institutes of Health.

20 Nov 2021

ALS also causes retinal alterations, study reveals

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), characterized by harm to brain neurons and to the spinal cord, also affects the tissue of the retina, according to a study headed up by Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

16 Nov 2021

Study offers new insight into the role of tau proteins in ALS pathogenesis

A team led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital has shown that people living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, who carry a mutation in the C9orf72 gene exhibit elevated levels of tau and phosphorylated tau protein in the motor cortex region of the brain.

15 Nov 2021

Inflammatory chemicals involved in fat metabolism play key role in ALS, study shows

A new study using genetically engineered mice and human cell and tissue samples has added to evidence that higher levels of inflammatory chemicals involved in fat metabolism occur in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the neuromuscular disorder, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

15 Nov 2021

Identifying an important protein for motor coordination

News-Medical speaks to Professor Jorge Ruas about how he has identified an important protein involved in motor coordination.

10 Nov 2021

Study reveals the role of SPOP protein in an inherited form of ALS

The damaging effects of toxic proteins created in one inherited form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are mediated by a protein called SPOP, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences.

8 Nov 2021

Methylation of TDP-43 DNA linked to age-dependent motor cortex involvement in ALS

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an intractable neurological disease. Aging is a risk factor for the accumulation of TDP-43 (transduction responsive region DNA-binding protein of 43kDa) in the motor cortex. TDP-43 is a protein that tends to accumulate in increasing amounts, and the amount is strictly controlled by the splicing of TDP-43. Through cell experiments and analysis of human brain tissue, researchers at Brain Research Institute, Niigata University, led by Akihiro Sugai, M.D., Ph.D., have found that methylation of TDP-43 DNA is involved in the background of motor cortex involvement with aging in ALS

29 Sep 2021