Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) News and Research

RSS

Navigating the Labyrinth of Traumatic Brain Injury to Discover a Secondary Neurological Condition

Working with individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) every day, I see the debilitating effects and long-term struggles firsthand.

9 Oct 2012

Scripps scientists to study several compounds with potential to improve QOL for ALS patients

A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has been awarded $2.1 million by the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs to study several compounds with the potential to greatly improve the quality of life for those with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's disease.

9 Oct 2012

UMass Amherst biophysicist receives 2013 Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award

University of Massachusetts Amherst biophysicist Jenny Ross has won one of the top national honors in her field, the 2013 Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award, from the Biophysical Society of Rockville, Md. It is given to a woman who has achieved prominence for "substantial contributions to science," while showing very high promise for ideas and leadership in the early stages of her biophysical research career.

3 Oct 2012

Rapamycin can alleviate frontotemporal lobar degeneration

A southern Taiwan-based National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) research team has discovered that rapamycin, a drug as a autophagy activator is a possible treatment to alleviating frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), one of the mainly causes of dementia, and so far no medication can be used.

29 Sep 2012

Molecular link between spinal muscular atrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Researchers of motor neuron diseases have long had a hunch that two fatal diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), might somehow be linked. A new study confirms that this link exists.

28 Sep 2012

American footballers at high risk for neurodegenerative death

Professional American Football players are significantly more likely to die from a neurodegenerative disease than the general public, say US researchers.

10 Sep 2012

Q Therapeutics licenses Neuralstem's Spinal Cord Delivery Platform and Floating Cannula

Neuralstem, Inc. announced that it has granted the first licenses for use of its Spinal Cord Delivery Platform and Floating Cannula, for delivering therapeutic agents to the spinal cord, to Salt Lake City-based Q Therapeutics.

7 Sep 2012

New findings establish connection between microRNAs and cellular metabolism

New findings establish a connection between microRNAs and cellular metabolism, suggesting that a drug designed to inhibit these tiny molecules -- once considered to be "junk" DNA -- would have a positive effect against obesity.

7 Sep 2012

PrecisionMed announces enrollment of first donor into Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Registry

PrecisionMed Inc., the world's leading supplier of human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), today announced enrollment of the first donor into the PrecisionMed Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Registry.

30 Aug 2012

EphA4 receptor may be promising target for future ALS drug

Leuven scientists (VIB/KU Leuven) are using zebrafish as a model in their search for genes that play a role in the mechanism of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). As a result, they have identified a molecule that could be the target for a future ALS treatment.

28 Aug 2012

Neuralstem completes NSI-566 Phase I trial on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Neuralstem, Inc. announced the completion of the Phase I trial of its NSI-566 spinal cord neural stem cells for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), with the eighteenth patient treated.

28 Aug 2012

XJB-5-131 prevents secondary damage of severe traumatic brain injury

Treatment with an agent that blocks the oxidation of an important component of the mitochondrial membrane prevented the secondary damage of severe traumatic brain injury and preserved function that would otherwise have been impaired, according to a research team from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Graduate School of Public Health and Department of Chemistry in a report published online today in Nature Neuroscience.

27 Aug 2012

Profilin-1 gene influences survival time in Lou Gehrig's disease

A team of scientists, including faculty at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), have discovered a gene that influences survival time in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease).

27 Aug 2012

Longer looks: A jack-of-all-trades surgeon takes care of Nantucket; Psychiatrist's controversial effort to use brain scans to diagnose mental problems

Dr. Tim Lepore, 67, is a jack-of-all-trades general surgeon, tending to the 10,000 full-time residents of the Massachusetts island of Nantucket and to the many thousand more rich and famous summer-dwellers. Dr. Lepore has dealt with everything from poison ivy and tick-borne illnesses to narcolepsy and toe tourniquet syndrome (when a mother's hair wraps around a baby's toe, cutting off circulation). He counsels alcoholics, and allows patients to barter for health care. He once accepted oatmeal cookies from an immigrant worker who had no money for treatment.

17 Aug 2012

Trial to test efficacy of NeuRx Diaphragm Pacing System in people with Lou Gehrig's disease

The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) and The ALS Association today announced a joint commitment to provide funding for a phase 2 clinical trial that will test efficacy of the NeuRx Diaphragm Pacing System (DPS) in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

15 Aug 2012

ALS risk markedly lower among alcohol consumers

A population-based case-control study of the rare but devastating neurological disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has shown that the risk of such disease is increased among smokers, as has been shown previously. However, surprisingly, the risk of ALS was found to be markedly lower among consumers of alcohol than among abstainers.

13 Aug 2012

Study investigates role of inflammation in ALS mouse model

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive disease wherein the cells of the central nervous system (CNS) involved in movement and coordination are destroyed. Although the mechanism of ALS is not completely understood, inflammation is believed to play a role in the disease process. A recent study by Howard Weiner and colleagues at Harvard Medical School and Tufts School of Medicine investigated the role of inflammation in a mouse model of ALS.

7 Aug 2012

Changes in monocytes are biomarker for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) are the first to discover that changes in monocytes (a type of white blood cell) are a biomarker for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease. This finding also brings the medical community a step closer toward a new treatment for the debilitating neurological disease that affects approximately 30,000 Americans.

7 Aug 2012

UI Hospital implants NeuRx Diaphragm Pacing System in a patient with ALS

The University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System is one of only a dozen hospitals nationwide to implant the NeuRx Diaphragm Pacing System in a patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

3 Aug 2012

Anacardic acid can rescue some ALS phenotypes in vitro

A research group at the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) at Japan's Kyoto University has successfully recapitulated amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)-associated abnormalities in motor neurons differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) obtained from patients with familial ALS, a late-onset, fatal disorder which is also known for Lou Gehrig's disease. In a drug screening assay using the disease model, the team further found that the chemical compound anacardic acid can rescue some ALS phenotypes in vitro.

3 Aug 2012