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.
For people with brain disorders, whether from injury or disease, rehabilitation is a complex process. Neurosexuality is an emerging area of study and practice that focuses on the relationships between brain and sexual function in individuals with and without neurological disorders.
University of Michigan-led research brings scientists one step closer to understanding the development of neurodegenerative disorders such as ALS.
It is estimated that between 14,000 and 15,000 Americans have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), according to the National Institutes of Health. Symptoms of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, may be subtle at first but develop into more obvious muscle weakness and paralysis.
Scientists at the University of Alberta may have found possible targets for therapeutic interventions in the fight against Lou Gehrig's disease.
A new study from The Scripps Research Institute is the first to show precisely how a process in nerve cells called the S-nitrosylation (SNO) reaction- which can be caused by aging, pesticides and pollution- may contribute to Parkinson's disease.
The National Institutes of Health has presented its Maximizing Investigators' Research Award to Vasanthi Jayaraman, Ph.D., a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology with McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. It is a $2.6 million, five-year award.
The human brain is a mysterious supercomputer. Billions of neurons buzz within an intricate network that controls our every thought, feeling, and movement. And we've only just begun to understand how it all works.
Scientists at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute today received a grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative donor advised fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, to construct an atlas of gene activity of all cells in the human spinal cord.
Scientists at Rutgers University-New Brunswick used a genetic engineering technique for the first time to create brain cells from the blood cells of individuals in a three-generation family with Tourette syndrome to help determine what causes the disease.
A team led by scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Mayo Clinic has identified a basic biological mechanism that kills neurons in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and in a related genetic disorder, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), found in some ALS patients.
A joint research team of DGIST have identified the early neuropathic mechanism of polyglutamine brain disease, one of the representative degenerative brain diseases, and suggested a way to restore.
Scientists report in a new study that by imitating a natural process of cells, they prevented the formation of protein clumps associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia.
Illumina, Inc. and Bio‑Rad Laboratories, Inc. today announced the launch of the Illumina Bio-Rad Single-Cell Sequencing Solution at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, San Francisco.
While much about Alzheimer's disease remains a mystery, scientists do know that part of the disease's progression involves a normal protein called tau, aggregating to form ropelike inclusions within brain cells that eventually strangle the neurons.
Up to 90 percent of people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) report that they have no family history of the disease.
The most frequent genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD)- rare and related neurological disorders marked by progressive deterioration of motor or cognitive abilities- may be due to errors in RNA splicing, an intermediary step for translating genetic instructions into functional proteins.
A new study finds that a decades-old drug used to treat malaria lowers levels of a biomarker linked to the inherited form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS and Lou Gehrig's Disease.
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers are developing a new therapy for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis using part of an existing FDA-approved drug that restores the central nervous system's (CNS) immune defenses and increases life expectancy.
For the first time, a variant in UBQLN4 gene has been associated with Lou Gehrig's disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) - a progressive disease resulting in the loss of nerve cells that control muscle movement, which eventually leads to paralysis and death.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Radicava (edaravone) to treat patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease.
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